Importance of mother/young contact at parturition and across lactation for the expression of maternal behavior in rabbits

González‐Mariscal, Gabriela; Melo, Angel I.; Chirino, Rosario; Jiménez, Pedro; Beyer, Carlos; Rosenblatt, Jay S.

doi:10.1002/(sici)1098-2302(199803)32:2<101::aid-dev3>3.3.co;2-h

Cited by 12 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…However, as in the ewe, 30 min of interaction with newborns in the female rat is enough to maintain maternal behaviour for at lest 10 days. The importance of these first interactions just after parturition has also been shown in the rabbit [26] and can be more or less clearly found in all the species studied.…”

Section: The Activation Of Maternal Behaviour In Other Mammalsmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…This effect should be counteracted or even reversed at parturition in order to allow the expression of care to the young. The paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus also plays an important role at parturition, being the source of intracerebral oxytocin secreted at this moment and facilitating the appearance of maternal behaviour by numerous projections and its diffusion in the cerebral ventricles [26,38,39].…”

Section: Neurobiological Mechanisms Of Activation Of Maternal Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mechanisms of activation of maternal behaviour in mammals

Poindron

2005

Reprod. Nutr. Dev.

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-In mammals, the activation of maternal behaviour depends on internal maternal factors related with parturition. The nature of these factors may vary between species, although oestradiol, foetus expulsion and intracerebral oxytocin are the most commonly encountered. They induce a period of specific receptivity to some sensory cues provided by the neonate. These cues (tactile, olfactory, auditory, ...) also vary between species. The interactions between the mother and her progeny during this period, known as the sensitive period, facilitate the maintenance of maternal responsiveness beyond the initial phase of activation by the factors internal to the mother. The ability of mothers to display a well-adapted maternal behaviour is also modulated by maternal experience gained at the first parturition. Furthermore, this capacity is also influenced by the nature of the interactions experienced in infancy with the own mother of the female, which can lead to a nongenomic transmission of some individual characteristics of maternal behaviour or sensitivity to stress across generations. maternal behaviour / physiological control / mammals / maternal experience

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Section: The Activation Of Maternal Behaviour In Other Mammalsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: Neurobiological Mechanisms Of Activation Of Maternal Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanisms of activation of maternal behaviour in mammals

Poindron

2005

Reprod. Nutr. Dev.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…This process (which involves digging an underground burrow and lining it with straw and body hair) is tightly regulated by the changes in the concentrations of estradiol, progesterone and prolactin throughout pregnancy (González-Mariscal et al, 1994, 1996. Following parturition, maternal behaviour towards the kits is restricted to a single nursing bout per day, which occurs inside the maternal nest, with circadian periodicity (Jilge 1993(Jilge , 1995González-Mariscal et al, 2013a), and lasts around 3 min (Zarrow et al, 1965;González-Mariscal et al, 2013b). Ovarian steroids are essential for stimulating the onset of maternal behaviour because: a) while intact virgin estrous does are totally indifferent to foster kits, they can be induced to behave maternally (i.e., to crouch over the young and allow suckling) by lesioning the main (Chirino et al, 2007) or accessory (González-Mariscal et al, 2004) olfactory systems; b) ovariectomy abolishes this response.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in responsiveness to kit odours across pregnancy: relevance for the onset of maternal behaviour

Chirino

González‐Mariscal

2015

World Rabbit Sci.

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Virgin does are indifferent to foster kits but lesions to the main or accessory olfactory systems allow them to behave "maternally" (i.e., they crouch over the litter and allow suckling). This suggests that kit-derived olfactory cues are aversive to virgins but not to lactating does. We hypothesised that the valence of such olfactory cues changes throughout gestation so that, at parturition, does are attracted to the newborn and can then show placentophagia, clean the kits and nurse them. To explore this hypothesis we exposed does to 2 nest boxes containing a variety of pup-derived vs. "neutral" odours, quantifying the number of sniffs and entrances to each box over 60 min. Virgins, confronted with 2 different types of contrasts, showed no significant differences in the number of sniffs or entrances directed at any of the 2 boxes. Pregnant rabbits sniffed the "kit-odour" box significantly more than the "neutral" one as early as gestation day 7, depending on the animals' experience with the experimental setup and kit odours as virgins. The number of sniffs declined in late pregnancy in all groups. Entrances into the "kit-odour" box were few and significantly higher than those shown towards the "neutral" box only in 1 group. Our findings agree with a correlation between a shift in the valence of kit-derived olfactory cues and the hormonal changes known to occur throughout pregnancy. The relevance of this phenomenon for the onset of maternal responsiveness at parturition is discussed.

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“…Mother-kit interaction during parturition and in early lactation seems to play a crucial role for adequate display of maternal care. According to González-Mariscal et al (1998) this may be more critical in primiparous does than in multiparous does, and maternal experience obtained in previous pregnancy also seems to be of importance. Besides the short nest box visits, group-and individually-housed does also visited nest boxes for very long durations (>5 min) in the last 2 wk of lactation, probably using the nest box as a resting place or as a place to withdraw themselves from their group mates in the group pens.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Description of nestbox visits and suckling events in a group housing system for rabbit does as compared to individual cages

et al. 2012

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AbstrAct:Research was conducted to study nursing associated events of lactating rabbit does. Nest box visits and suckling events were investigated using 6 group pens (8 does/pen) and 12 enriched individual cages. Each group pen and individual cage was observed by video for one day per week until weaning at 35 d of lactation, with exception of the third week of lactation. In the first 2 wk of lactation, videotapes were analysed for the frequency and duration of nest box visits per day. The fourth and fifth week of lactation, suckling events on the floor of the group pens and nest box visits in the individual cages were analysed for one day per week. The first 2 wk of lactation, does visits to the nest boxes were less frequent (respectively 1.9±0.2 vs. 2.6±0.3, P<0.1) and shorter (respectively 113±9 s vs. 158±15 s, P< 0.05) in the group pens than in the individual cages. In the group pens, 32% of the does had intervals of >24 h between nest box visits. In the cages, all does visited the nest boxes at least once a day. In the last 2 wk of lactation, in the group pens suckling duration (mean±standard deviation) was 89±49 and 92.2±37 s in respectively week 4 and 5. In 79% of the suckling events a mix of the does' own and other kits were suckled. No difference was found in suckling duration between litters consisting of own and/or other kits. Thirty-two per cent of the does in week 4 and 62% of the does in week 5 did not suckle kits on the floor of the pen, whereas all the does in the cages still visited the nest boxes at least once every 24 h. Based on this study, it can be concluded that in group housing less frequent and shorter nest box visits as well as suckling events were found as compared to individual housing.

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Importance of mother/young contact at parturition and across lactation for the expression of maternal behavior in rabbits

Cited by 12 publications

References 13 publications

Mechanisms of activation of maternal behaviour in mammals

Mechanisms of activation of maternal behaviour in mammals

Changes in responsiveness to kit odours across pregnancy: relevance for the onset of maternal behaviour

Description of nestbox visits and suckling events in a group housing system for rabbit does as compared to individual cages

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