The microbiota is extremely important for the animal’s health, but, to date, knowledge on the intestinal microbiota of the rabbit is very limited. This study aimed to describe bacterial populations that inhabit the different gastrointestinal compartments of the rabbit: stomach, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, caecum, and colon. Samples of the luminal content from all compartments of 14 healthy New White Zealand rabbits were collected at slaughter and analyzed using next generation 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing. The findings uncovered considerable differences in the taxonomic levels among the regions of the digestive tract. Firmicutes were the most abundant phylum in all of the sections (45.9%), followed by Bacteroidetes in the large intestine (38.9%) and Euryarchaeota in the foregut (25.9%). Four clusters of bacterial populations were observed along the digestive system: (i) stomach, (ii) duodenum and jejunum, (iii) ileum, and (iv) large intestine. Caecum and colon showed the highest richness and diversity in bacterial species, while the highest variability was found in the upper digestive tract. Knowledge of the physiological microbiota of healthy rabbits could be important for preserving the health and welfare of the host as well as for finding strategies to manipulate the gut microbiota in order to also promote productive performance.

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This study examined the effects of goji berries dietary supplementation on the energetic metabolism of doe. Thirty days before artificial insemination, 75 New Zealand White does were assigned to three different diets: commercial standard diet (C) and supplemented with 1% (LG) and 3% (HG) of goji berries, respectively. Body conditions, hormones and metabolites were monitored until weaning. Body weight and BCS were higher in HG than C (p < 0.05). LG showed lower T3/T4 ratio and cortisol concentrations (p < 0.05) and tended to have lower indices of insulin resistances (p < 0.1) than HG. Compared to control, leptin was higher in HG at AI (p < 0.01) and in LG during lactation (p < 0.05). Two principal components were extracted by multivariate analysis describing the relationships between (1) non-esterified fatty acids, insulin and glucose levels, and (2) body conditions and leptin metabolism. The first component highlighted the energy deficit and the insulin resistance of the does during pregnancy and lactation. The second one showed that leptin, body weight and Body Condition Score (BCS) enhance as levels of goji berries in the diet increase. Thus, the effects of goji supplementation are dose-dependent: an improvement on energy metabolism was achieved with a low-dose while the highest dose could determine excessive fattening and insulin resistance in does.

This study evaluated the effect of different dietary concentrations of Goji berries (GB) on the meat quality of rabbit. At weaning, New Zealand male rabbits were assigned to three groups and fed with a commercial standard diet (C), C supplemented with 1% (LG) or 3% Goji berries (HG) until slaughter. Supplementation did not affect colour, water holding capacity, and tenderness but regression analyses showed linear relationships between pH (P<.05), Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances (TBARS; P<.001), Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC; P<.001), Redox Index (RI; P<.001), and phenolic content (P<.001) of Longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscle and the rate of GB in the feed. However, by pairwise comparisons emerged that acidification (pH: P<.05), antioxidant/oxidant status (TBARS, ORAC, RI; P<.001), and phenolic content (P<.01) of muscle significantly improved only in HG compared with C group. Then, a dose-dependent relation was found but only the higher dose of GB guaranteed an increase in protection against oxidative phenomena of meat.

Forty-two New Zealand White rabbits (n = 21/group) were fed with two different diets: a commercial diet (control group) and a diet supplemented with goji berries (3% w/w). After slaughtering, the effect of dietary supplementation on microbiological, physico-chemical, and sensory characteristics of the rabbit loins, packed in an oxygen-permeable package, was evaluated at 6 h post mortem (day 0), after 4 and 10 days of refrigerated storage. No relevant results were obtained for pH and total volatile basic Nitrogen (TVBN) values but with regards to the color, some significant differences were observed between the groups. The goji berries (GBs) dietary supplementation had positive effects by reducing thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) values in all the observations (p < 0.001). Moreover, microbiological results showed that the supplementation had a significant impact on Lactobacillus spp. (p < 0.001) prevalence, indeed the goji group had higher means on day 0 (p < 0.05) and on day 4 (p < 0.001) than the control group. Lastly, with regards to the consumer’s test, the tasters assigned a higher score to GBs rabbit meatballs and the purchase interest increased when the rabbit diet was known. Overall, these results indicate that the goji berries inclusion in the rabbit diet could represent a valuable strategy to improve quality and sensory traits of meat.