model that coincides with all fields of research application is quite arduous. But the variety in strains of
particular animal species offers choice to the investigators for selecting the model for their study
design. Considering the constraints regarding the expense, availability, legal and ethical aspects of us‐
ing large mammals, it is feasible to select the most phylogenetically developed animals, closest to hu‐
man among the smaller mammal species that are available in sufficient quantity.
Lagomorphs re‐
portedly are closest to human phylogeny after primates, among which rabbits bear the most
resemblance.[
2
] Rabbits also possess advantages over mice and rats for being used as laboratory anim‐
als owing to its genetic closeness to human than rodents.[
3
]
Rabbits are members of family
Leporidae and order
Lagomorpha[
4
] and according to the taxonomists,
there are 47 distinct strains of rabbits,[
5
] but more recently, the American Rabbit Breeders Association
(ARBA) has identified 49 rabbit strains.[
6
] Though New Zealand white (NZW) strains of rabbits
(
Oryctolagus cuniculus) gain more popularity in biomedical research,[
7
] other vital strains essential
for specific research purposes include the Dutch-belted rabbits, Californian white, Polish rabbits and
the New Zealand red.[
7
]
In one of our previous articles[
8
] based on the amelioration of the selection of appropriate age of labor‐
atory animal for biomedical sciences, it had been mentioned that as per the data of European Union
(2010), rabbits had been the third mostly globally used laboratory mammals, just after the usage of
mice and rats. There had been a declining trend of use of rabbit from 1950 to 2010[
9
] as is also evident
from data (1973 to 2015) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)/Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service (APHIS),[
10
,
11
,
12
] but this is probably owing to the global protest against
the use of animal for experimentation, which diverted the biomedical research towards more
in vitro
studies, as an 8% decline in research use of animals, taken as a whole, from 2014 to 2016, has also
been shown by USDA/APHIS.[
13
,
14
,
15
] This explains the reduction in laboratory use of rabbits from
258,754 in 2000 to 139,391 in 2016.[
13
] However, rabbits are still indispensable for laboratory use
which attributes to its relatively larger size than mice or rats, while a convenient size compared to lar‐
ger mammals, docile nature, availability of its strains each of which fit for specific experimentation pro‐
cedures and its cost effectiveness, for which it has been the second highest used animal in research and
teaching in 2016 in the Unites States, as per USDA/APHIS[
13
] [
Figure 1
].
Figure 1
(a) Research benefits of different rabbit strains; (b) trend of total animal and rabbit uses in biomedical research.
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