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The study investigated the effect of Digestarom ® dietary supplementation on the reproductive performances of rabbit does. Pannon Ka (maternal line) multiparous does were randomly divided into two dietary groups since insemination and fed ad libitum. In the first group (n=51), rabbit does were fed with a commercial diet (C), whereas in the other group (n=52) they received the same diet supplemented with 300 mg/kg of Digestarom ® (D). The experiment lasted for two reproductive cycles (kindling 1=K1; kindling 2=K2). Body weight of does and litter size (kits born total, alive, stillborn) were recorded at kindling. Litter size and litter weight were registered at 7, 14, 21 days of age after nursing, and the average individual weight of kits was calculated. Kits' mortality was recorded daily. At K1, rabbit does performances were unaffected by dietary treatments. During K2, D does were significantly lighter than C ones (P<0.05) and displayed a lower kindling rate (P<0.05). Digestarom ® did not improve the reproductive performance of rabbit does. They seemed to dislike the D diet in K1 and such behavior could have led to the negative results in K2. Further studies should focus on feed acceptance, dose-dependent effect, physiological adaptation and in vivo oxidative status of does. Finally, several consecutive reproductive cycles are recommended to test the efficacy of new feed supplements.

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As the most common grain contaminant worldwide, deoxynivalenol is of high importance despite its low toxicity compared to other trichothecene mycotoxins. Data on the effects of deoxynivalenol in rabbits are scarce. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary deoxynivalenol fed at a high level (10 mg/kg of feed) on the productive performance, blood indices, immunological variables, histopathological changes, and genotoxicity in rabbits. Forty-eight Pannon White rabbits were exposed to contaminated diets for three weeks. Despite its high concentration, deoxynivalenol did not affect the feed intake, body weight, and body weight gain. Liver and kidney function was not affected, as shown by the clinical chemistry indices. Conversely, in two rabbits the toxin caused mild fibrosis of the liver, without degenerative changes of the hepatocytes. No genotoxicity could be observed either. Gut cytokines and the phagocytic activity of the macrophages did not differ significantly. The percentage of neutrophils was significantly lower, whereas that of eosinophils was significantly higher in the toxin-fed group. Deoxynivalenol did not cause significant changes in gut and villus morphology. In 4 out of the 6 deoxynivalenol-treated animals, the ratio of lymphoblast proliferation and simultaneous apoptosis shifted towards apoptosis in the gut-associated lymphoid tissue. In the central part of the lymphoid follicles of the spleen, lymphocyte depletion and follicular atrophy could be detected. It can be concluded that rabbits are less sensitive to deoxynivalenol, but the findings confirm that this Fusarium toxin is capable of modulating the immune response. Mycotoxin, immune response, histology, blood indicesMycotoxins are secondary metabolites of filamentous fungi occurring worldwide. Despite being the least toxic trichothecene, the ubiquitous occurrence of deoxynivalenol (DON) in grains increases its importance for food and feed safety. The pig is the most sensitive, whereas ruminants are the least sensitive animal species to DON (Pestka and Smolinski 2005;Pestka 2007;Sobrova et al. 2010). Monogastric animals are extremely prone to growth and body weight gain suppression upon DON exposure. Deoxynivalenol possesses immunomodulatory properties as well (Pestka and Smolinski 2005). To the best of our knowledge, only few experiments have been conducted with DON in rabbits (Khera et al. 1986;Hewitt et al. 2012). The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate the effects of 10 ppm (mg/kg feed) of dietary DON which is twice as much as the highest guidance value

Abstract:The experiment aimed to study the effect of Digestarom ® dietary inclusion (herbal formulation containing a mixture of essential oils, herbs, spices and extracts) on apparent digestibility and digestive ecosystem of growing rabbits, as well as the effects of its supplementation before and after weaning on growth performance. At kindling, rabbit does and litters were divided into 2 dietary groups (51 does/group) and fed either a control diet (C) or a diet supplemented with 300 mg Digestarom ® /kg diet (D) until weaning, which occurred at 35 d (before weaning supplementation). Each group was further divided into 3 dietary groups: CC received the control diet and DD received the D diet from 5 to 12 wk of age, and DC were fed with D (from 5 to 8 wk of age) and C diets (from 8 to 12 wk of age) (after weaning supplementation; 54 kits/ group). An in vivo digestibility trial and a faecal microbial count were carried out on growing rabbits that received only the C or D diets during the trial. The C group showed higher DM intake than D group (215 vs. 196 g/d; P<0.05). The faecal digestibility of ether extract (75.9 vs. 59.8%; P<0.001), cellulose (25.9 vs. 20.6%; P<0.05) and gross energy (51.8 vs. 49.1%; P<0.05) was higher for C than for D group, whereas that of starch (98.9 vs. 98.8%; P<0.001) and the digestible protein to digestible energy ratio (13.9 vs. 13.2 g digestible protein/MJ digestible energy; P<0.01) was the highest for rabbits fed D diet. Stomach and caecal pH, caecal and faecal microbial counts were independent of the dietary treatment. The only exception was the stomach pH in 8 wk-old rabbits, which had the lowest value in C rabbits (P<0.05). The D supplementation before weaning improved feed conversion ratio throughout the growing phase (4.3 vs. 4.4 for D and C, respectively; P<0.05), whereas significant differences in daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio and mortality were observed only in the first period after weaning. Based on the results obtained, dietary supplementation with Digestarom ® does not seem to confirm the positive results previously reported for growing rabbits.

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