Colony housing for farmed rabbits improves welfare but requires robust disease surveillance and biosecurity to prevent infectious disease amplification in social groups.
Colony housing welfare advantages — freedom of movement, social interaction, and behavioral expression — are well-established and represent a genuine improvement over conventional cages. The disease challenge is real but manageable with appropriate biosecurity, vaccination, and genetic selection. Producer training in disease surveillance — early identification of sick individuals, isolation protocols, and pathogen sampling — is the critical implementation bottleneck. Well-managed colony systems deliver better welfare outcomes than cage systems despite higher management intensity requirements.