Effect of high fat diets on the performance and food intake of primiparous and multiparous rabbit does

Abstract

The influence of high fat diets on several production traits of primiparous and multiparous rabbit does was studied in 246 lactations from a total of 61 crossbreed rabbit does (Californian × New Zealand). Starting with a control diet (diet C) with 26 g ether extract (EE) per kg dry matter (DM), two isoenergetic diets were formulated adding fat from vegetable sources up to 99 g EE per kg DM (diet V) or animal sources up to 117 g EE per kg DM (diet A). Digestible energy/digestible protein ratio (DE/DP) was maintained between 82 and 87 kj/g. Food intake decreased with high fat diets compared with the control diet during gestation (P ‘lt; 0·001), which implied a decrease in the DE intake (P < 0·01 and P < 0·05 for primiparous and multiparous does, respectively). Fat addition did not affect food intake of primiparous does during lactation (101·8,106·9 and 103·7 g DM per day per kg live weight (M)0·75 for C, V and A diets, respectively) but increased the DE intake (1121 kj/day per kg M°0·75 for C diet cf. 1325 for V and 1264 for A diets; P < 0·01) and reduced does' weight losses at the end of lactation (F > 0·05). However, multiparous does on C diet showed a greater food intake during the last 2 weeks of lactation (110·6 for C diet v. 101·5 and 98·9 g DM per day per kg M0·75 for V and A diets, respectively; P < 0·001). High fat diets improved significantly the productive parameters at the 21st day of lactation: increasing litter size (P < 0·01 for multiparous does) and weight (P < 0·01 and P < 0·001 for primiparous and multiparous does, respectively) and decreasing the food conversion ratio (P < 0·001). An increase of dietary fat content decreased solid food intake of litters during the last 2 weeks of lactation (P < 0·01 and P < 0·001 for primiparous and multiparous does, respectively) but only affected their solid DE intake slightly. In conclusion, high fat diets seem to improve the productivity of lactating does and their corporal condition during the first lactation.

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

“…Literature dealing with intake regulation in the young rabbit is scarce, and often in disagreement. Thus, works of Pascual et al (1998 and led to similar conclusions as ours. Increasing the energy concentration of diet using starch (Pascual et al, 1999) or lipids (Pascual et al, 1998) led to a lower consumption of solid diet by young rabbits between 22 and 35 days of age.…”

“…Thus, works of Pascual et al (1998 and led to similar conclusions as ours. Increasing the energy concentration of diet using starch (Pascual et al, 1999) or lipids (Pascual et al, 1998) led to a lower consumption of solid diet by young rabbits between 22 and 35 days of age. On the contrary, other studies suggested that the regulation of the solid feed intake in young rabbits would implicate other mechanisms than the level of the digestible energy.…”

An early stimulation of solid feed intake slightly influences the morphological gut maturation in the rabbit

“…Despite the change in milk composition according to the stage of lactation [18][19][20] that we did not consider in our calculations, nutrient intake differed in quantity and quality, according to weaning age. Classical-weaned rabbits ate more crude protein and fat than early-weaned rabbits, whereas crude energy intakes were similar.…”

Genetic selection of maternal lines and digestive efficiency in rabbits: long term selection for litter size at weaning versus hyper selection for reproductive longevity.

“…After a 7 d adaptation period, faeces were collected individually for 4 d (from 13 to 16 d of lactation) as recommended by Perez et al (1995). The faeces collection period was fixed from 13 to 16 d of lactation in order to find the maximum milk yield and feed intake regularity (Pascual et al, 1999;Maertens et al, 2006). From the moment the doe rabbits were placed in metabolic cages, both feed intake and milk yield were monitored on a daily basis.…”