Developments in the investigation of rabbit semen and buck management.

In Europe, rabbit Artificial Insemination (AI) is widely employed in rabbit farms for commercial and operational reasons (IRRG, 2005). At the same time, this diffusion has contributed to improve the knowledge both of the doe and buck physiology as well as that of the spermatozoa metabolism. Many factors affect seminal traits (IRRG, 2005) and thus it is therefore crucial to define suitable protocols to improve spermatozoa characteristics and their fertility (Castellini and Lattaioli, 1999; Brun et al., 2002b). The aim of this chapter is to furnish the state of up-to-date information on rabbit semen and buck management focused on the following topics: 1. The spermatozoa and seminal fractions; 2. Factors affecting sperm production; 3. Limits and future prospects of semen evaluation; 4. Cryopreservation of semen; 5. Semen as a model for toxicological or metabolic studies.