The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a diet based on whole white lupin seed (WLS) on the sanitary risk index and the growth of growing-fattening rabbits. Two experimental diets were formulated; the first contained soybean meal (SBM: 60 g/kg) as the main crude protein (CP) source and the second contained WLS (105 g/kg) as the main CP source. A total of 260 Hyplus rabbits (weaned at 36 d old) were randomly divided into 2 experimental groups (SBM and WLS; 130 rabbits per group) and fed one of the two experimental diets (SBM or WLS diet) for 42 d. There were no significant differences among treatments with regard to weight gain (on average 46.5 g/d), feed intake (on average 150.5 g/d) or the feed conversion ratio (on average 3.24). No significant differences between the two groups in mortality or morbidity of the rabbits were observed due to a high hygiene standard of rabbit building. However, we observed a lower number of rabbits at sanitary risk in rabbits fed with the diet based on WLS compared to the rabbits fed the SBM diet (5 vs. 13 rabbits. P=0.085). The results of this study confirmed that regarding growth performance, WLS is fully comparable with SBM. From the digestive health of rabbit perspective, it is highly probable that feeding with the WLS diet is safer than with the SBM diet.