The Emission from Rabbits Breeding in Slovakia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors,

In your paper, you present interesting statistical survey results regarding rabbit breeding in households. The data reveal that approximately 8.3% of Slovak households engage in rabbit breeding, with the majority of rabbits being bred in rural areas (61%), followed by breeding in urban areas (35%), and a small percentage (4%) of households engaging in both options.

One aspect that could be further addressed is the method of breeding rabbits. Although you mention that housing with movement restriction is the predominant method, it would be valuable to explore the reasons behind this trend and discuss its potential implications for rabbit welfare and overall breeding practices. Additionally, you could provide insights into the prevalence of housing without movement restriction in urban areas compared to rural areas and examine the factors influencing this difference. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to discuss the absence of free breeding in households for both options and its potential impact on rabbit breeding outcomes.

Furthermore, your paper briefly touches upon the topic of excrement recovery and its importance in sustainable farming practices. To enhance the comprehensiveness of your study, it would be beneficial to provide more details about the methods employed to collect and analyze the information on excrement recovery. Specifically, discussing the literature review and search methodology would provide transparency and ensure replicability of your findings.

Lastly, your paper mentions the estimation of methane and nitrous oxide emissions from domestic rabbit farming. While these estimates provide valuable insights, it would be valuable to further explore the environmental implications of these emissions in the context of sustainable farming practices. Discussing strategies to mitigate emissions and potential impacts on climate change would enrich the discussion section of your paper.

Specific comments:

I would like to bring to your attention that the abstract of your paper is missing the conclusions section. It is essential to include a concise summary of the key findings and implications of your study in the abstract. This will provide readers with a clear understanding of the main takeaways from your research without having to delve into the full paper.

I kindly suggest revising the abstract to include a dedicated conclusions section. In this section, you can summarize the significant results and their implications for the field of rabbit breeding or any practical applications that arise from your findings. Additionally, you can briefly mention any recommendations or future research directions that stem from your study.

By including the conclusions in the abstract, you will effectively communicate the significance and impact of your research to a broader audience, attracting more readers and generating interest in your paper.

I have reviewed your paper and wanted to highlight a couple of important points that could enhance the focus and impact of your research.

Firstly, it would be beneficial to include a discussion on the measurement of the impact and efficiency of rabbit production. Specifically, you could explore how the findings of your study contribute to improving efficiency in rabbit production, particularly in terms of feed conversion. While you have touched upon this aspect in your paper, I suggest providing a more in-depth analysis and considering additional references that discuss the impact of improved feed conversion on overall efficiency and productivity.

Secondly, it would be valuable to address the topic of increasing litter size and viability in rabbit breeding. This aspect plays a crucial role in maximizing productivity and profitability. I recommend incorporating relevant information and findings from this reference 10.1080/1828051X.2020.1827990 to support the importance of increasing litter size and enhancing viability. This will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing rabbit breeding success and further highlight the practical implications of your research.

By incorporating these concepts into your paper, you can strengthen its relevance to the field of rabbit production and offer practical insights to breeders and researchers. If you have any questions or require further guidance, please feel free to reach out.

Best regards,

Author Response

Thank you for your valuable feedback on our submitted article. We greatly appreciate your constructive criticism. Based on your suggestions, we will make the following edits to the manuscript:

1. We will provide a description and discussion on the absence of free-range breeding of rabbits and its impact on breeding itself, supplementing the table regarding the prevalence of living without movement restrictions in urban areas.

2. In the methodology section, we will include details on how we collected data on excrement recovery.

3. We will add a paragraph to the discussion section addressing strategies to mitigate emissions and their potential impacts on climate change.

4. The abstract will be revised according to your recommendations.

5. For the research on the influence and efficiency of rabbit production, we will focus on presenting the data collected for estimating emissions from breeding, as we acknowledge that we may not be experts in this particular area. Therefore, we will refrain from stating conclusions for this aspect.

6. Similarly, for the research on increasing litter size and viability in rabbit breeding, we will present the collected data without drawing specific conclusions, as our expertise lies primarily in estimating emissions from breeding.

We sincerely appreciate your guidance, and we are fully committed to enhancing the quality of our manuscript based on your expert insights.

Thank you once again for your valuable input.

Best regards,

Kristína Tonhauzer, Lenka Zetochová, Janka Szemesová

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors present interesting data regarding rabbit breeding emissions in Slovakia. There is potential for this study to contribute to the body of knowledge. There are, however, several crucial points throughout the manuscript that require clarification or correction. In addition, the final paragraph does not clearly define the objectives. There are numerous grammatical errors and errors in the reference list. However, there are specific objectives, and the general objective should be stated in accordance with the title.In the abstract, it is uncommon to describe each chapter's methodology, results, and conclusions; it is more common to describe each chapter's output. This document's key words are phrases, so it would be preferable to create words. The manuscript is well-written, serves an intriguing purpose, and should pique the readers' interest. However, the results are presented effectively. 

The written English contains a number of errors, some of which can be found in the sentence structures or in the tenses that are employed.

Author Response

Thank you for your valuable feedback on our submitted article. We appreciate your constructive criticism, and we will address the grammatical errors and make the necessary corrections. Furthermore, we will revise the abstract, discussion and conclusion sections of the manuscript based on your recommendations to enhance their clarity and coherence. Additionally, we will revise the keywords as per your suggestions.

We are grateful for your guidance, and we are committed to improving the quality of our manuscript based on your expert insights.

Thank you once again for your valuable input.

Best regards,

Kristína Tonhauzer, Lenka Zetochová, Janka Szemesová