Nutrition and feeding strategy: interactions with pathology.

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The importance of dietary fibre fractions in animal feeding is due to its influence on the rate of passage, mucosal functionality and its role as substrate for gut microbiota that relates to performance and digestive health. The complexity of the physical structure and chemical composition of polysaccharides in plant cell walls explains the wide and different physiological effects of this large range of fibre fractions. Our review will first briefly consider the definition and structure of the different classes of fibres and of cell wall constituents, followed by a description of some analytical methods employed for monogastric feeds. Second, the nutritional role and impact of fibre intake on digestive health will be described for the growing rabbit with an extensive analysis of previous studies performed without antibiotics. The fibres in rabbit feed are essential for reducing the risk of digestive trouble after weaning, and the requirements are defined in terms of the quantity and quality of the fibre fractions as follows: a minimal dietary level of lignocellulose 'ADF' (18%) and lignins (>5%), balanced with a maximum quantity of digestible fibres 'DgF' (ratio DgF/ADF below 1.3). Soluble fibres, defined as the difference between total dietary fibre and NDF, are quickly fermented and digested by the rabbit. However, their impact on digestive health is still questioned.Keywords: dietary fibres, definition, nutrition, digestive health, rabbit Implications Post-weaning mortality from digestive troubles still remains a key problem in conventional breeding of rabbits. Dietary fibres recover more than 50% of feed for the growing rabbit. New criteria for fibre analysis in feeds were developed, and were related in several recent studies with the digestive physiology of rabbits and risk of digestive troubles. The present review aims to summarise these results through an extensive analysis of the literature. We also propose practical recommendation for fibre requirements in the feed of the growing rabbit to preserve the digestive health. IntroductionThe concepts on dietary fibres historically differ in animal feeding from those developed in human nutrition. For the latter, this is a rather modern concept, mainly developed in the 1960s (Hippsley, 1953) in order to deal with several pathologies (colorectal cancer, obesity, etc.), regularly revisited (Trowell, 1978;De Vries, 1999;Elleuch et al., 2011) and often restricted to the polysaccharides of the plant cell wall of fruits and legumes. In contrast, animal nutritionists deal with other 'less-refined' fibre sources, often from whole plants (forages, by-products of seed processing, etc.), and recover a larger range of chemical components, including other polymers such as polyphenolic (lignins, tannins) or polylipidic compounds (cutins).At present, these two conceptions are converging, and dietary fibres are generally defined as polysaccharides and associated substances resistant to mammal enzyme digestion and absorption that can be partially or totally fermented in the gu...

Section: Brief Overview Of Polymers Of the Plant Cell Wall: Definitiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary fibres in the nutrition of the growing rabbit and recommendations to preserve digestive health: a review

Gidenne

2015

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“…A common indicator to evaluate the impact of a disease in breeding is the mortality rate. More recently, a morbidity indicator was developed for the growing rabbit to assess more precisely the incidence of the clinical symptoms (Gidenne et al, 2010), and it could be combined with mortality to obtain a health-risk index (HRi, % 5 morbidity % 1 mortality rate %). This approach allows a more precise assessment of the health status.…”

Section: Effect Of a Post-weaning Feed Restriction On Digestion And Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Various solutions, such as the improvement of hygiene, batch breeding and improvement in nutritional and feeding strategies, have been proposed for the growing rabbit in the past 10 years. Recent reviews outlined the minimal needs of the growing rabbit for different fibre fractions to reduce the risk of -E-mail: thierry.gidenne@toulouse.inra.fr digestive troubles, from ERE or EPEC or from non-specific digestive troubles (De Blas et al, 1999;Gidenne, 2003;Carabañ o et al, 2008;Gidenne et al, 2010). Feed intake limitation in the young rabbit was initially studied to analyse the effects on growth and digestive efficiency (Lebas and Delaveau, 1975;Lebas, 1979).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feed intake limitation strategies for the growing rabbit: effect on feeding behaviour, welfare, performance, digestive physiology and health: a review

Gidenne

Combes

Fortun-Lamothe

2012

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137

This review aims to present the different effects produced by a post-weaning intake limitation strategy on the growing rabbit, now largely used by French professional rabbit breeders. Although a quantitative feed restriction leads to slower growth, feed conversion (FC) is improved, particularly when the rabbits are again fed freely, as compensatory growth occurs. This better FC or the healthy rabbit is because of better digestion resulting from slower passage through the intestine, whereas the digestive physiology is slightly modified (morphometry of the intestinal mucosa, fermentation pattern, microbiota). Meat quality and carcass characteristics are not greatly affected by feed restriction, except for a lower dressing-out percentage. One of the main advantages of limiting post-weaning intake of the rabbit is to reduce the mortality and morbidity rate due to digestive disorders (particularly epizootic rabbit enteropathy syndrome). The consequences for animal welfare are debatable, as feed restriction probably leads to hunger, but it reduces the incidence of digestive troubles after weaning. However, the growing rabbit adapts very well to an intake limitation strategy, without any aggressive behaviour for congener. In conclusion, restriction strategies could improve profitability of rabbit breeding, but they should be adapted to any specific breeding situation, according to the national market, feed prices, etc.

“…As the feed intake is directly correlated with the water consumption (Gidenne and Lebas, 2006), recent studies have evaluated the effects of water restriction on digestive health (Boisot et al, 2004;Ben Rayana et al, 2008). In practical conditions, with growing rabbits, the access to drinking water can be limited between 1 and 4 h/day, reducing food intake, mainly as a result of short duration of watering (Gidenne et al, 2010). However, under hot climatic conditions, it is essential that the water restriction is not severe as it can have a negative impact on animal welfare (Gidenne et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of water restriction on growth performance, feed nutrient digestibility, carcass and meat traits of rabbits

Bovera

Lestingi

Piccolo

et al. 2013

The study investigates the effects of a post-weaning water restriction on performance, nutrient digestibility, carcass traits and meat quality of 84-day-old rabbits. A total of 1388 weaned rabbits (35 days) were randomly divided into two groups on the basis of BW and sex. The two groups were fed the same diets ad libitum both in the post-weaning (35 to 60 days) and fattening (61 to 84 days) periods. In the post-weaning period, one group (AL) also received drinking water ad libitum, whereas the other (WR) had a water restriction from 35 to 41 days 2 h/day; from 42 to 48 days 2.5 h/day; from 49 to 55 days 3 h/day; and from 56 to 60 days 4 h/day. During the fattening period, both groups had water-free access. Individual live weights and feed intake per cage were recorded weekly for 32 cages randomly chosen per group (64 rabbits) to calculate the BW gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR). The apparent digestibility values of nutrients were measured using acid-insoluble ash. Carcass data were collected from 16 rabbits (8 males and 8 females) per group selected for similar final BW in both groups. Mortality from 35 to 60 days was higher in the AL group (10.1% v. 5.2%, for AL and WR, respectively, P , 0.0001). BW gain was higher for the AL group during both the post-weaning (122.4%, P , 0.01) and the entire period (17.5%, P , 0.05). Water restriction reduced feed intake both in the post-weaning (217.4%, P , 0.0001) and in the entire period (29.9%, P , 0.05). During the fattening period, FCR was lower for the WR group (5.15 v. 5.75 g/g, for WR and AL, respectively, P , 0.05). The apparent digestibilities of dry matter, organic matter, NDF, ADF and cellulose were greater in the restricted rabbits (14.7%, 14.5%, 110.2%, 118.8% and 112.8%, P , 0.01, P , 0.01, P , 0.05, P , 0.01, P , 0.05, respectively). Perirenal and scapular fat percentages were higher in the AL rabbits (130.7% and 1116.6%, P , 0.01 and P , 0.001, respectively). Water restriction increased saturated fatty acids (C16:0, 112.9%, P , 0.05), lauroleic acid (C12:1, 175.0%, P , 0.01), n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (C20:5, 150.0%, P , 0.01 and C22:5, 116.6%, P , 0.05) and the n-3/n-6 ratio (128.6%, P , 0.05). The applied water restriction between 35 and 60 days executed during the winter months improved the digestive health of rabbits, with no negative effects on carcass traits, or physical and chemical meat characteristics. However, from the animal welfare point of view, a water restriction can be criticized as a method to restrict feed intake.