World Rabbit Science - Vol. 19 (4)-2011
Tabla de contenidos
- Characterization of Clostridium perfringens presence and concentration of its α-toxin in the caecal contents of fattening rabbits suffering from digestive diseases
- Effect of oxidation state of dietary sunflower oil and dietary zinc and α -tocopheryl acetate supplementation on performance of fattening rabbits
- Use of near infrared spectroscopy for intramuscular fat selection in rabbits
- Effect of lighting schedule on production of rabbit does
- Effect of feeding programme before weaning on the production of rabbit does and their kits
- Technical Note: Design of a large variable temperature chamber for heat stress studies in rabbits.
- Technical Note: Plastic mats prevent footpad injuries in rabbit does
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Item type: Artículo , Access status: Abierto , Use of near infrared spectroscopy for intramuscular fat selection in rabbits(Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València, 2011) Zomeño, Cristina; HERNÁNDEZ, PILAR; BLASCO, AGUSTÍN; Generalitat Valenciana; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación[EN] The potential use of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for the determination of intramuscular fat (IMF) content in rabbit selection programmes was evaluated. One hundred and thirty seven rabbits from three different synthetic lines slaughtered between 5 and 61 weeks of age were used for NIR calibration. Longissimus muscles (LM) were homogenised, freeze-dried and scanned by NIRS reflectance and total lipid content was chemically analysed. Calibration equation parameters reported appropriate results for IMF (cross-validation standard error, SECV=0.07g/100g muscle; cross-validation coefficient of determination, R2=0.98 and residual predictive deviation of cross-validation, RPD=7.57). Another 88 rabbits were used to study the suitability of NIR spectroscopy in selection programmes. Intramuscular fat was measured in LM using chemical and NIRS analyses. Descriptive statistics showed that NIRS could be a proper technique to average comparison, but regression analyses (R2=0.92) and rank correlation measures, especially Kendall's tau-b correlation coefficient (0.83), indicated that NIRS may not be accurate enough to predict individual genetic values and produce ranking of animals. However, NIRS technique could be applied in truncated selection where the efficiency of the method is measured by the response to selection. Selection can be done on second parities using the IMF value of two full sibs of first parities. Ten females and 5 males can be selected as parents to establish a new population of 40 females and 5 males. The IMF values were similar between animals selected on the basis of chemically-determined IMF and NIRS-predicted IMF content. Results of the experiment confirmed the potential of NIRS for the determination of IMF content in rabbit selection programmes instead of using laborious chemical methodsItem type: Artículo , Access status: Abierto , Technical Note: Plastic mats prevent footpad injuries in rabbit does(World Rabbit Science. ICTA. UPV, 2011) Rommers, Jorine; de Jong, Ingrid C.In the Netherlands, welfare regulations indicate that rabbits should be housed on 3 mm wire floors. In a pilot study, 3 mm wire floors did not decrease footpad injuries as expected, whereas a plastic mat fixed to the 3 mm wire did improve footpad quality. However, more data were necessary to support this finding. To this end, footpad injuries were studied in does housed on 3 mm wire floors (NOMAT) and 3 mm wire floors with a plastic mat (MAT) on five rabbit farms. On each farm, 25 cages were used for each floor type and footpad quality was measured during 5 successive reproductive cycles. Footpad quality was scored once every production cycle of 42 or 49 d, using a scale from 0 (= intact footpads) to 4 (=wounds). The total number of does in the experiment declined at later parity, due to relocation within the farm and mortality. The percentage of does with intact footpads on NOMAT declined from 96.4% to 13.3% from the first to the fifth parity, respectively. On MAT, 81.3% of the does still had intact footpads at the fifth parity. Results indicated that on NOMAT footpads became injured after the second parity, with a negative effect on the welfare of the does. The average footpad score was significantly lower for the does on MAT as compared to the does on NOMAT (average scores ± SD were 0.17 ± 0.43 and 0.32 ± 0.54, respectively; P < 0.05). Fewer injuries were observed on MAT. Thus, plastic mats have a positive effect on prevention of footpad injuries.Item type: Artículo , Access status: Abierto , Technical Note: Design of a large variable temperature chamber for heat stress studies in rabbits(Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València, 2011) García Diego, Fernando Juan; Pascual Amorós, Juan José; Marco-Jiménez, Francisco; Departamento de Física Aplicada; Departamento de Ciencia Animal; Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Industrial; Instituto Universitario de Ciencia y Tecnología Animal; Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica y del Medio Natural; Centro de Investigación en Acuicultura y Medio Ambiente; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación[EN] One of the major constraint factors for rabbit production consists of the environmental conditions and especially high temperatures that negatively affect reproduction and growth performance. For this reason, several studies have addressed the effects of heat stress and possible solutions to alleviate its impact on rabbit performance. This article describes the design and operating features of a large temperature chamber (13x4.7x3.1 m) configured to house 42 rabbits. The probes consisted of temperature sensor model DS2438 and humidity sensor model HIH-5031. The system was controlled by an Arduino platform programmed by its Integrated Development Environment (IDE) software. The system takes a decision every minute: it connects the heating if the temperature is lower than programmed and connects exhaust fans if the temperature is over the programmed setting. To renew the indoor air, every 5 min the system switches off the heating and switches on the exhaust fans for 15 sec. Two experiments (with and without animals) were carried out to test the temperature control accuracy. Firstly, without animals, two tests were performed: (i) adjusting the temperature of the climatic chamber to the control house temperature plus 10ºC and (ii) based on daily minimum (32ºC) and maximum (37ºC) temperatures. Secondly, with animals, does were maintained (i) between a daily minimum (32ºC) and maximum (37ºC) for 48 h and (ii) between a daily minimum (25ºC) and maximum (35ºC) temperatures for 105 d. Mortality rates were noted in both tests. The results of comparing the measured temperature deviation from programmed temperature reported a coefficient of determination of 0.9850 and 0.9947, for plus 10ºC and 32-37ºC curves, respectively. In the animal tests, the determination coefficients were 0.9926 and 0.9928 for programmed curve in the range of 32 to 37ºC and 0.9859, 0.9900 and 0.9901 for programmed curve in the range of 25 to 35ºC. Survival of females in the temperature chamber was as expected for reproductive rabbit does: 100 and 82% in the 2 and 105 d trials, respectively. Results indicate that the chamber provided precise temperature control for the development of heat stress studies in rabbits.Item type: Artículo , Access status: Abierto , Characterization of Clostridium perfringens presence and concentration of its [alfa]-toxin in the caecal contents of fattening rabbits suffering from digestive diseases(World Rabbit Science. ICTA. UPV, 2011) Romero, Carlos; Nicodemus, Nuria; Jarava, Maria Luisa; Menoyo, David; Blas, Carlos de; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación[EN] Digestive diseases are the main cause of morbidity and mortality in growing rabbits. Clostridium perfringens is a widely occurring pathogenic bacterium in enteric diseases of domestic animals and its pathogenicity stems from the production of potent exotoxins. This work aimed to quantify the concentration of C. perfringens [alfa]-toxin in caecal samples of rabbits with digestive diseases and relate these concentrations to C. perfringens counts. Additionally, C. perfringens strains isolated from rabbits with clinical lesions of Epizootic Rabbit Enteropathy (ERE) were toxinotyped. To conduct this work, a total of 711 rabbits weaned at 35 days were housed in pairs and fattened until the age of 63 days. No experimental infection was performed and no antibiotics were provided in the feed or drinking water. All rabbits displaying symptoms of digestive diseases were slaughtered and necropsied. At 46 days, 88 healthy rabbits were also slaughtered. Caecal contents were sampled from all slaughtered animals. Thirty-seven out of the 69 rabbits with digestive diseases (88.5% of sick animals) showed ERE-confirmed symptoms and lesions. Apart from diarrhoea, the most constant ERE signs were abdominal bloating and borborygmi. At necropsy, the anterior digestive tract was found filled with large amounts of gas and liquid. Twenty-seven rabbits had liquid caecal contents whereas caecal impaction only appeared in 10 rabbits. Live weight was lower by 49.2% (P<0.001) in diseased rabbits as compared with healthy rabbits of the same age. For C. perfringens counts lower than 6.0 log cfu/g, the [alfa]-toxin concentration remained below 2.6 [micro]g/mg. However, for bacterial counts above 6.0 log cfu/g the concentration of [alfa]-toxin ranged from 0.12 to 60.9 [micro]g/mg. Nevertheless, both caecal concentration of C. perfringens (7.65 vs. 3.09 log cfu/g, P<0.001) and that of its [alfa]-toxin (6.02 vs. 0.17 [micro]g/mg, P<0.001) were higher in diseased rabbits than in healthy ones. C. perfringens toxinotype A was found in all ERE-affected rabbits. No other toxinotype was identified and no isolate contained the enterotoxin gene. In conclusion, C. perfringens [alfa]-toxin should not be considered a good indicator of the bacterium's presence, as high counts of colonies are not always associated with high toxin concentrations.Item type: Artículo , Access status: Abierto , Effect of oxidation state of dietary sunflower oil and dietary zinc and [alfa]-tocopheryl acetate supplementation on performance of fattening rabbits(Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València, 2011) Casado, Cristina; Moya, V.J.; Pascual Amorós, Juan José; Blas Ferrer, Enrique; Cervera Fras, Mª Concepción; Departamento de Ciencia Animal; Instituto Universitario de Ciencia y Tecnología Animal; Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica y del Medio Natural; Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología[EN] Twelve diets were formulated using the same raw materials and including 3% of sunflower oil at 3 different oxidation levels [fresh (F), peroxidised (P; 55ºC for 11 d; 83 meq O2/kg oil) and highly-oxidised (O; 140ºC for 31 h; [Ro]-anisidine value of 125)], with 2 levels of [ALFA]-tocopherol supplementation (0 and 100 ppm), and 2 levels of Zn supplementation (0 and 200 ppm). A growing trial with 900 twenty eight d old rabbits was carried out in order to study the effect of the oxidation and protection level of supplemented oil on the performance of animals from weaning (28d) to 63 d of age. Another coetaneous trial was performed to study the effect of the oxidation level of sunflower oil (F, P and O) on caecal activity around weaning, using 120 suckling rabbits randomly re-allocated into 12 litters of 10 kits (4 litters per diet) from 17 to 44 d of age. Four rabbits per litter were slaughtered at 30 and 44 d (16 rabbits/treatment and age). Full gastro-intestinal tract and caecum were weighed and pH, dry matter (DM), ammonia nitrogen (NH3) and volatile fatty acids concentration (VFA) values in caecal content were measured. No effect was observed either in the mortality rate, body weight gain, feed intake or conversion rate throughout the growing period when peroxidised or oxidised oils were included in the diet, being on average 32%, 45.1 g/d, 107.6 g DM/d and 2.44, respectively. Dietary supplementation with [alfa]-tocopherol and/or Zn had no effect on the mortality rate, feed intake and performance of rabbits during the fattening period. Daily weight gain just after weaning (28 to 30 d of age) was higher for kits receiving the diet supplemented with F and O diets than those with the P diet (55, 50 and 35 g/d, respectively; P<0.05), but no further effect on performance was observed. Young rabbits fed with the P diet showed lower DM percentage in caecum at 30 d of age (-9.5%; P<0.05) than those with F or O diets. Caecum of young rabbits fed with the O diet presented lower NH3 content at 30 d of age that those given F diet (-38%; P<0.05) and higher total VFA and acetic acid concentration (+36 and +34 %, respectively; P<0.05). Therefore, and although many questions are still open, oxidised oils could be considered as a possible energy source for rabbit nutrition.Item type: Artículo , Access status: Abierto , Effect of lighting schedule on production of rabbit does(Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València, 2011) Gerencsér, Zsolt; Matics, Zsolt; Nagy, István; Szendro, Zsolt[EN] The aim of the experiment was to analyse the effects of the lighting schedule on the rabbit does' production. The does were randomly housed in two rooms at the age of 11 weeks. In the first room, a continuous 16-hour light period was applied (8:00-24:00) (16L:8D, control group; n=60 does, 239 parturitions). In the second room, an 8-hour light period was used (8:00-16:00) which was extended by an additional 1 hour light period in the middle of the 16-hour long dark period (23:00-24:00) 8 days prior to insemination (8L:7D:1L:8D, treated group; n=59 does, 223 parturitions). The experiment was finished after 5 reproductive cycles. Significant differences were obtained for body weight of the does (higher in treated group, P<0.05), litter size (control and treated groups: total born = 9.23 and 8.69, born alive = 8.83 and 8.24, at day 35 = 8.29 and 7.84, P=0.015, P=0.006, P <0.001, respectively), litter weight, individual weight of kits, suckling mortality and for feed consumption between days 21 and 35 of the lactation period. No significant differences were observed for number of inseminations per parturition, feed intake between days 0-21 of lactation, the does' condition at kindling measured by the TOBEC method and doe survival. The annual performance per doe was superior in the control group for number of kits born alive (65.0 and 58.8, P=0.036), number of weaned (at day 35) kits (58.9 and 53.8, P=0.046) and total weight of the weaned kits (58.2 and 52.7 kg, P=0.049) compared to the treated group. According to the results, the additional one hour lighting period (treated group) had no favourable effect on production compared to the continuous 16-hour light.Item type: Artículo , Access status: Abierto , Effect of feeding programme before weaning on the production of rabbit does and their kits(Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València, 2011) Gerencsér, Zsolt; Matics, Zsolt; Nagy, István; Szendro, Zsolt[EN] The aim of the experiment was to analyse the effect of the feeding programme between 21 day of lactation and weaning on the production of rabbit does and their kits. The does were randomly housed in two rooms. In the first room, a continuous 16-hour light period was applied (16L; n=60). In the second room, an 8-hour light period was used which was extended by an additional 1 hour light period in the middle of the 16-hour long dark period 8 days prior to insemination (8+1L; n=59). In both rooms, two sub-groups were formed: in the first sub-group, does and their kits received breeding pellet from parturition to weaning (DE: 10.4 MJ/kg, crude protein: 17.8%, crude fibre: 13.6%; BB group; n=60 does, 228 parturitions); in the second sub-group, the breeding pellet was replaced by growing pellet from 21 days of lactation to weaning (DE: 9.7 MJ/kg, crude protein: 16.0%, crude fibre: 17.2%; BG group; n=59 does, 234 parturitions). The experiment was completed after 5 reproductive cycles. As no significant interaction was found between the lighting and feeding programmes, the two effects are evaluated separately. In this paper, the effect of feeding programme is discussed. No significant differences were observed between the BB and BG groups for number of inseminations per parturition, body weight of the does measured at parturition and at 21st day of lactation or for litter size. Changing the pellet in BG group significantly affected the body weight of the does measured at 35th day of lactation (4610 vs. 4530g, in BB and BG, respectively; P=0.016), the litter and individual body weight of the kits at day 35 (BB: 8160 vs. BG: 7834g, P=0.001; BB: 1006 vs. BG: 964g, P<0.001, respectively) and the does' condition at kindling, as measured by the TOBEC method (E-value: BB: 1922 vs. BG: 1957, P=0.024). Productivity indexes, expressed as number of kits born alive, number of weaned (at day 35) kits and total weight of the weaned kits per year per doe were similar in the two groups. Body weight of the growing rabbits was significantly higher in the BB group at the ages of 5 and 7 weeks (984 and 937g, P<0.001, 1651 and 1621g, P=0.008; respectively). After this period, the body weight of the two groups was the same. The feeding programme had no effect on the feed conversion ratio and mortality of the two groups. According to the results, it may be concluded that it is preferable to avoid food changes around weaning.