Digestive tract development in rabbit according to the dietary energetic source: correlation between whole tract digestion, pancreatic and intestinal enzymatic activities

Debray, Laurence; Huërou‐Luron, Isabelle Le; Gidenne, T.; Fortun-Lamothe, Laurence

doi:10.1016/s1095-6433(03)00112-0

Cited by 27 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Postnatal development of the digestive potential has scarcely been studied in rabbits. Our results showed that availability of pancreatic amylase and lipase for substrates in the small intestine increased with age, which is in agreement with the age increase of their activities previously described in the pancreas Dojanȃ et al, 1998;Debray et al, 2003). The increase in amylase activity probably results from the higher starch intake with age (Marounek et al, 1995;Scapinello et al, 1999), and should correspond to an increasing capability of rabbits to digest starch.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…But this adaptative response was associated with a decrease in mucosal maltase activity, an enzyme also implicated in the digestion of starch. Other authors found conversely that pancreatic enzymes would not be adaptable to amounts of nutrients incorporated in diet from 25 to 42 days of age (Debray et al, 2003). Due to these discrepancies and the scarceness of data in rabbits, we aimed at studying the early digestive maturation process, as well as its plasticity to feed in the young.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Adaptability of the digestive function according to age at weaning in the rabbit: I. Effect on feed intake and digestive functionality

Gallois

Huërou‐Luron

Fortun-Lamothe

et al. 2008

Animal

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The functional adaptability of the digestive system to the level of feed intake was investigated in the young rabbits by comparing two groups of 12 litters each, weaned at 21 (W21) or 35 (W35) days of age. From 14 days onwards, rabbits were fed a pelleted feed (NDF: 332 g/kg, CP: 177 g/kg, starch: 98 g/kg, as-fed basis). Until 49 days of age, the profile of digestive enzymes was weekly determined in the small intestinal content and mucosa, as well as caecal fermentation traits and fibrolytic activities. In the W21 group, the solid feed intake was increased by 57% between 21 and 35 days (P , 0.01), while the daily body growth was lower from 21 till 42 days (217%, P , 0.05) when compared with the W35 group. Activities of enzymes of pancreatic origin were only scarcely influenced by the weaning age. In the W21 group, amylase activity tended to be lower at 28 days of age (236%, P 5 0.064), and trypsin activity was decreased by 31% at 49 days of age (P , 0.01). Lipase activity was similar in both weaning groups. Duodenal and jejunal activities of maltase and aminopeptidase N (APN) were higher on day 28 in the W21 group as compared with the W35 group (31.4 to 32.4, respectively, P , 0.05). On day 35, duodenal APN activity was twice as higher in the W21 group than in the W35 group (P , 0.01). In caecum, major differences between both weaning groups were observed at 28 days of age with a decrease in ammonia concentration (243%, P , 0.01) in W21 compared with W35 rabbits. Conversely, the acetate proportion was 5% higher in the W21 group (P , 0.01) on day 28. In conclusion, the digestive tract of early-weaned rabbits showed some adaptative properties in response to nutritional environment changes, but they were insufficient to maintain their growth rate.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Adaptability of the digestive function according to age at weaning in the rabbit: I. Effect on feed intake and digestive functionality

Gallois

Huërou‐Luron

Fortun-Lamothe

et al. 2008

Animal

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“…Starch was almost completely digested (over 98%) irrespective of the weaning age, whereas dietary lipids were less valourised by rabbits weaned for more than 2 weeks. Debray et al (2003) showed a decrease in the ability of the rabbits to digest dietary lipids after weaning. In our study, rabbits weaned at 35 days of age, namely for only 3 days at the beginning of the faeces collection period, should still be able to digest quite large amounts of lipids.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, this method was recommended for Gallois, Fortun-Lamothe, Michelan and Gidenne rabbits aged 49 days at least. When applied to younger rabbits, it leads to overestimation of digestibility coefficients, notably due to a delay between the increase in feed intake and the corresponding faecal output (Debray et al, 2003). Although no data of mean retention time are available for rabbits of this age, we hypothesised that the indigestible fraction of the diet will be found in the faeces about 24 h after intake.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the digestive response of the young rabbit to sharp changes in the feed intake (quantity and quality) was never studied at the ileal and faecal levels. Methodological aspects are mainly responsible for this lack of information, since methods available for adult rabbits are not adapted to the young rabbits (Debray et al, 2003). Moreover, no study offers a comprehensive approach of the digestive processes in the young rabbit, including enzymatic response of the small intestine as well as caecal microbial activity (see the first part of this study) and analysis of the consequences on digestive efficiency in the small intestine and in the whole digestive tract.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adaptability of the digestive function according to age at weaning in the rabbit: II. Effect on nutrient digestion in the small intestine and in the whole digestive tract

Gallois¹,

Fortun-Lamothe²,

Michelan³

et al. 2008

Animal

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The ability of young rabbits to digest a solid diet was evaluated according to the weaning age: 21 (W21, 12 litters) or 35 (W35, 12 litters) days of age. From 14 days onwards, the rabbits were fed the same pelleted feed. Three methods were compared to estimate the faecal digestibility in the young rabbits, between 24 to 28 and 38 to 42 days. Digestive balance at ileal and faecal levels was determined for the main nutrients provided by milk and solid feed. The W21 rabbits increased their solid feed intake only 2 days after their weaning, when compared with suckling rabbits. Thus, their crude protein (CP) intake remained lower until 26 days compared with the W35 rabbits (from 41%, P , 0.01), as well as their crude fat intake until 28 days (from 72%, P , 0.001). On the contrary, the W35 rabbits increased their solid feed intake without a delay after weaning, quickly reaching the intake level of the W21 rabbits. The amounts of organic matter (OM) and CP reaching the caecum were increased on day 28 by 56% and 42% in the W21 rabbits compared with the W35 rabbits, respectively (P , 0.05), and were similar between groups on day 42. Starch ileal digestibility coefficients were 94 Á 2% and 95 Á 4% in 28-and 42-day-old rabbits, respectively, irrespective of the weaning age. The amount of starch flowing through the ileo-caecal junction was low and only tended to be higher on day 28 in the W21 group (0.20 v. 0.15 g/day in the W35 group, P 5 0.10). The digestive balance pointed out that the digestible energy intake was similar between weaned and suckling rabbits from 23 to 27 days, a phenomenon partly explained by a high ability of the W21 rabbits to digest starch (98%) and NDF (36%). Indeed, the amounts of starch and NDF digested by the W21 group were 2.0-and 2.4-fold higher than those of the W35 rabbits at this period (P , 0.001). However, they ate 20% less digestible proteins than still-suckling rabbits (P , 0.001). From 38 till 42 days, only a lower ability of the W21 rabbits to digest lipids was detected (P , 0.05). In conclusion, early-weaned rabbits were able to adapt quickly to digest large amounts of starch and fibres.

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Digestive flexibility in females of the subterranean rodent ctenomys talarum in their natural habitat

Valle

Mañanes

2010

J. Exp. Zool.

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We studied the occurrence of digestive strategies at different levels in females of the subterranean herbivorous rodent Ctenomys talarum living in their natural habitat. We determined the dimensions of different parts of the gastrointestinal tract and organs along as the activity of key digestive enzymes(sucrase, maltase and N-aminopeptidase) in small intestine in females seasonally caught. Females of C. talarum did not show seasonal variations in the mass of the different parts of the gastrointestinal tract. In nonreproductive females large intestine was longer in autumn, whereas reproductive females did not show seasonal variations in the length of the different parts of the gut. Females of C. talarum exhibited a high sucrose, maltase and N-aminopeptidase activity in small intestine, although these activities were higher in small intestine of females caught in autumn (nonreproductive) than in females caught in winter (reproductive). The results show that C. talarum females exhibit characteristics in the gut at the morphological and biochemical level, which could represent digestive strategies to face the constraints imposed by their costly particular way of life.

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Digestive tract development in rabbit according to the dietary energetic source: correlation between whole tract digestion, pancreatic and intestinal enzymatic activities

Cited by 27 publications

References 18 publications

Adaptability of the digestive function according to age at weaning in the rabbit: I. Effect on feed intake and digestive functionality

Adaptability of the digestive function according to age at weaning in the rabbit: I. Effect on feed intake and digestive functionality

Adaptability of the digestive function according to age at weaning in the rabbit: II. Effect on nutrient digestion in the small intestine and in the whole digestive tract

Digestive flexibility in females of the subterranean rodent ctenomys talarum in their natural habitat

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