Effect of cage type on the behaviour patterns of rabbit does at different physiological stages

Abstract

Interest in commercially farmed rabbit welfare has increased in recent years. As a result, new alternative housing systems have been developed, although they require evaluation in order to demonstrate their potential for improving welfare. The aim of this trial was to study the behavioural traits of rabbit does housed in 2 different types of cage (TC): conventional vs. alternative with an elevated platform, at different physiological stages (PS); lactation and gestation. Behavioural observations were carried out on 12 rabbit commercial does using continuous 24 h video recording. Independently of PS and TC, rabbit does spent most of their time on foot mats (on av. 57.7%). However, due to the use of platforms (on av. 23.0% of time), lactating does spent 36.6% less time on foot mats (P<0.001) and gestating does spent 27.0% less time on wire mesh (P<0.001) in alternative cages than in conventional cages. Alternative cages allowed for standing posture, but this behaviour was only observed in gestating does (on av. 4.6 times a day). Frequency of drinking was higher in conventional than in alternative cages (24.6 vs. 19.1 times a day; P<0.05). Gestating does housed in conventional cages reached the highest duration and frequency of interacting with neighbours (276 s/d and 4.6 times/d; P<0.05). The frequency of interacting with kits was lower in alternative than in conventional cages (2.4 vs. 8.6 times a day; P<0.01). Doe behaviour was influenced by the time of day, with less activity during the midday hours. During dark hours, rabbit does more frequently performed restless behaviour such as hyperactivity or nursing, matching the time at which rabbit does spent more time on the platform. The platform was frequently used by rabbit does, regardless of their physiological stage, and during late lactation phase, when mothers were not receptive to nursing, does housed in alternative cages used the platform as a mean to flee from kits trying to suckle. Use of the platform might lead to hygienic problems due to retained faeces on the platform and faeces and urine falling onto animals located in the lower part of the cage. The absence of stereotypies in rabbit does of this trial, suggested that animal welfare was not compromised by the type of housing (conventional or alternative cages).

Influence of feeding strategy and diet for reproductive rabbit does on intake, performances, and health of young and females before and after weaning1

“…The energy requirements for overlapping lactation and gestation of rabbit does are very high, and this requirement is not fully covered by voluntary feed intake, especially in primiparous does. Numerous propositions to improve the performances and longevity of does have been suggested, including changes in reproductive rhythm (Castellini et al, 2010;Alfonso-Carrillo et al, 2014), genetic selection (Garreau et al, 2004;Ragab and Baselga, 2011), and feeding strategies (Pascual et al, 2003;Menchetti et al, 2015).…”

A review of recent research outcomes on the housing of farmed domestic rabbits: reproducing does

“…Different strategies (platform, plastic pipe, hiding place, straw, territory, dark corridor, group stability, regrouped into home or new pen, sprayed odours) have been tested without great success in reducing aggression at regrouping and consequent injuries which may affect up to 60% of does (Graf et al, 2011;Rommers et al, , 2013Rommers et al, , 2014aAndrist et al, 2012Andrist et al, , 2013Andrist et al, , 2014Buijs et al, 2015). A combined system with four individual modules and a common area has also been tested by Gerencsér et al (2018): 18 d after kindling, the entrances of the individual modules were opened and a 21-d group-housing started.…”

“…It reached the highest peak on day 2, but remained high for many days in some pens. Indeed, aggressive interactions decreased on some days Andrist et al, 2012) or even a few hours after group formation (Maertens and Buijs, 2016b;Zomeño et al, 2017). In fact, also in other farmed animal species, the establishing of hierarchy in a group is always a critical point (sow: Mount and Seabrook, 1993;Hoy and Bauer 2005;Elmore et al, 2010;Hemsworth et al, 2013;laying hen: Gvaryahu et al, 1994;D'Eath and Keeling, 2003;Johannson et al, 2015).…”

Development of simplified sampling methods for behavioural data in rabbit does

“…This result might be explained by the longer observation time from dusk until dawn, when rabbits are more active and performed these kind of behaviours with higher frequency, as observed by Alfonso-Carrillo et al (2014) in a behaviour pattern study of rabbit does throughout 24 h. Even so, the irregular long method was not accurate enough for other short and infrequent behaviours such as standing or sniffing due to their high variation. An increase in the number of replicates would be advisable to gather more reliable information on this type of behaviours.…”

“…Rabbit does nested to type of cage was included in the model as a random effect. Only the effect of methods and their interactions with type of cage and physiological stage are shown, as type of cage and physiological stage effects were discussed in a previous article (Alfonso-Carrillo et al, 2014). When method effect and their interactions were significant, a Dunnet test was used to make pairwise comparisons using the reference method as control treatment.…”