Fauve de Bourgogne

The Fauve de Bourgogne has very ancient origins, and reddish-colored rabbits have been found in Burgundy for centuries. This rabbit was raised in large numbers in this region primarily for its hardiness, precocity, and fine quality meat. It was indeed raised with the aim of quickly achieving a good weight for meat. The coat was not then clearly established. Their dominant shade was already reddish, but some individuals were marked with white on the neck, head, and paws. These were the preference of farmers, but hardly of rabbit breeders: Albert Renard, a few years before the First World War, worked to establish the breed that he named Fauve de Bourgogne by fixing certain characteristics, notably the tawny color of the coat. In 1919, in an issue of L'Acclimatation, a journal specializing in farm animals, he wrote the history of the breed and specified the crosses performed. By means of drastic selection of individuals in order to perform the most appropriate matings, he achieved regular reproducibility of the breed. The breed achieved good development in France, due to its meat qualities. In 1928, the association AELFB (Association of Fauve de Bourgogne Rabbit Breeders) was formed, charged with promoting the breed. In March 1998, a second association, the UFELFB (French Union of Fauve de Bourgogne Rabbit Breeders) was founded in Châtillon-sur-Seine. In January 2012, the two associations merged under the name CFELFB (French Club of Fauve de Bourgogne Rabbit Breeders). In October 2017, the former leaders of the AELFB left the CFELFB to recreate the AELFB (Association of Fauve de Bourgogne Rabbit Breeders). Published in the Official Journal on November 4, 2017. Today, there are approximately 1,130 declared breeders of Fauve de Bourgogne, holding 9,200 breeding animals. Population numbers appear to be increasing and the breed is therefore not threatened. It is, however, the subject of a conservation program led by INRA and the French rabbit farming federation as part of the genetic resource conservation project RESGEN. Thus, embryos and semen from Fauve de Bourgogne are preserved frozen.

The judging criteria are those established by the French Rabbit Farming Society, which adopted the breed standard on April 22, 1914.