Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit

Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit

The Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit is an agricultural product with geographical indication status.

　　The Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit originates from Jiuyi Mountain in Ningyuan County, from which it gets its name. It has short, dense fur, strong limbs, and well-developed muscles.

　　The Office of the National Committee on Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources has recognized the Ningyuan “Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit” as a national “genetic resource,” marking it as a high-quality rabbit breed at the national level.

　　Characteristics

　　The Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit has short, dense fur, strong limbs, and well-developed muscles.

　　Main distribution of the Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit

　　The Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit is currently distributed within Ningyuan County and surrounding areas including Lanshan, Jiahe, Xintian, Shuangpai, Daoxian, and Jianghua. It exists both in the wild on mountains and through artificial breeding. Within Ningyuan, there are specialized conservation farms and breeding facilities, such as the Ningyuan Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit Original Breed Farm.

　　Becoming a national high-quality rabbit breed

　　In May 2010, a team of experts from the National Committee on Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources conducted sampling tests on the Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit. They concluded that its lineage is clear, its genetic traits are distinct, its hereditary performance is stable, and it has an appropriate population size and structure. It is a small-sized local rabbit breed formed through long-term natural and artificial selection. It features strong adaptability, disease resistance, reproductive capacity, and excellent meat quality, meeting the criteria for rabbit genetic resources under the Measures for the Approval of New Livestock and Poultry Varieties and Breeding Systems and the Appraisal of Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources.

　　Promotion

　　In recent years, with strong support from the county and the efforts of Zhang Chunrong, president of the Ningyuan Rabbit Breeders Association, 56 large-scale rabbit farmers have been cultivated in Ningyuan County, producing 5 million Jiuyi Mountain Rabbits annually. The Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit breeding and promotion project has successively won the First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress in Yongzhou City and the Third Prize in Hunan Province.

　　Now, the Jiuyi Rabbit Industry Co., Ltd. is emerging, and the “Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit” will be launched before the Mid-Autumn Festival in August this year. It is available in supermarkets of all sizes.

　　Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit

　　Geographic Scope

　　The Ningyuan Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit is mainly distributed across eight towns in Ningyuan County, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province, including: Renhe Town, Heting Town, Shunling Town, Jiuyi Mountain Township, Zhonghe Town, Lengshui Town, Bao’an Township, and Taiping Town. Ningyuan County is located in the southern part of Hunan Province, at the northern foot of the Mengzhu Mountains in the central section of the Nanling Mountains, and is classified as a hilly county. Its geographic coordinates are longitude 111°43′25″ to 112°12′10″ and latitude 25°11′39″ to 26°08′23″. It borders Xintian County and Jiahe County to the east, Lanshan County to the southeast, Jianghua County to the south, Shuangpai County and Daoxian County to the west, and Qiyang County to the north. The total area is 2,510.96 square kilometers, with elevations ranging from 165 to 1,959.2 meters—a height difference of approximately 1,794 meters. The total production scale is 6 million rabbits, with an annual output of 12,000 tons.

　　Product Quality and Characteristic Features

　　1. External Sensory Characteristics: The Jiuyi Mountain Rabbit has a delicate head shape, short and dense fur, predominantly white or gray fur, strong limbs, well-developed hindquarters, broad and flat back and waist, short and thick neck, presence of dewlap, relatively round hindquarters, plump thigh muscles, compact and elastic abdomen, strong adaptability, wide environmental tolerance, and more than 04 of these traits. At three months old, the dressed weight of meat rabbits is 1,352–1,362g, with a slaughter rate of 51–52.3%. 2. Internal Quality Indicators: Adult rabbits have a slaughter rate of 48–54%, moisture content of 77–78%, ash content of 1.0–1.3%, protein content of 20.5–23%, and fat content of 0.85–1.5%. 3. Safety Requirements: The production of Jiuyi Mountain Rabbits strictly follows the standards and specifications for pollution-free livestock and poultry products, in accordance with NY5029 Pollution-Free Food Rabbit Meat.