There are two methods of artificially altering the traits and qualities of animals: selective breeding and genetic manipulation . The latter consists of the manipulation of genes in biotechnology laboratories. For example, three years ago scientists from the August Cieszkowski Agricultural University in Poland inserted the gene for human growth hormone into rabbits. The resulting transgenic animals were larger in size than the rest of their congeners, although the real objective of the experiment was for the females to produce this human hormone for therapeutic use, for example, in children with growth problems.
Another way to alter the size of a rabbit is through selective breeding, a practice that farmers have been doing for thousands of years. This basically consists of selecting the specimens with a quality and favoring their reproduction. In this way, the Berlin breeder Hans Wagner has managed to breed giant rabbits with a weight of 8 to 10 kilos and a length close to one meter.
