Coccidiostatic effects of tannin-rich diets in rabbit production

Abstract

The potential anti-eimerial effect of tannin containing resources such as sainfoin and carob in rabbits was tested on does at pre-weaning and to growing rabbits in their feed. The trial began at parturition (D0), when 24 does and their litters were assigned into three groups. They were fed either with a control (Group CO), a carob (containing 10% carob pods meal) (Group CP) or a sainfoin diet (containing 34% dehydrated sainfoin pellets) (Group SA). All diets were made isoproteic and isoenergetic and also balanced for crude fibre but differed by their tannin content. Weaning occurred at D37, and growing rabbits remained in the same cage until D51. Then, they were transferred to fattening cages until the end of the trial (D104) and slaughtering. Weight gain of young rabbits among the three groups (mean = 31.2 g/day) did not differ statistically. The mortality rates were 10% (SA), 15% (CP) and 20% (CO), respectively, but the differences were not statistically significant. Post-weaning economical feed conversion ratio (FCR) was reduced between rabbits of group SA compared to CO and CP groups. Faecal oocyst count (FOC) in group SA was 60% lower than in CO and CP groups. Areas under the curve (AUCs) calculated between sampling days and FOC, after transfer to fattening cages, was 62% lower in group SA than in CO and CP groups. The main Eimeria species identified (from D59 to D83) was Eimeria magna (53% of oocysts). AUCs for E. magna did not differ according to diet. In conclusion, the diet containing sainfoin reduced oocyst excretion of Eimeria spp. by 60%, and improved the economical FCR.

Deaths Due to Mixed Infections with Passalurus ambiguus, Eimeria spp. and Cyniclomyces guttulatus in an Industrial Rabbit Farm in Greece

“…The combination of garlic and oregano added in rabbit feed has also been shown to enhance meat quality characteristics, with zero withdrawal period [63]. Similarly, rabbit diets can be enriched with prebiotics [66] or with sanfoin [67] for coccidiosis prevention. Lactoferricin [68], heterocyclic thione derivatives [69], artemisinin liquid extract, different oils [70,71], Salix babylonica [72] and a commercial herbal extract [73] also showed promising results in rabbits infected with Eimeria spp.…”

Feeding of carob (Ceratonia siliqua) to sheep infected with gastrointestinal nematodes reduces faecal egg counts and worm fecundity

“…Such studies first examined temperate forage legumes fed through grazing, as hay, silage or pellets. Examples are sainfoin (Hoste et al, 2016;Legendre et al, 2018;Mueller-Harvey et al, 2019), sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata) (Burke et al, 2012a,b;Mechineni et al, 2014;Kommuru et al, 2014Kommuru et al, , 2015, and sulla (Hedysarum coronarium) (Niezen et al, 1995(Niezen et al, , 2002. More recently, there has been also a growing interest in tannin-containing by-products from the food industry as illustrated by studies with hazelnut peels (Corylus avellana fruits) (Desrues et al, 2012;, carob pods (Manolaraki et al, 2010;Arroyo-Lopez et al, 2014) and browse plants such as Pistacia lentiscus (Landau et al, 2010;Manolaraki et al, 2010), Quercus coccifera (Manolaraki et al, 2010) and Salix spp (Mupeyo et al, 2011).…”

“…In the current study, we further explored the in vivo anthelmintic effects of carob pod meal since it represents a common feed resource in the Mediterranean region and there was some previous evidence of its anthelmintic (Arroyo-Lopez et al, 2014) and anticoccidial (Saratsis et al, 2016;Legendre et al, 2018) properties. In order to develop a practical implementation tool for carob as dietary intervention, we wanted to identify a) the optimal carob concentration in the feed for bioactivity, b) whether…”

Alternatives to robenidine to control gastrointestinal disorders of weaner rabbits in the field

“…Sainfoin, and the tannins contained within ( Dalle Zotte & Cossu, 2009 ; Liu et al., 2013 ), as well as garlic ( Ankri & Mirelman, 1999 ) and conessi tree ( Siddiqui et al., 2012 ) have documented effects against E. coli . Concerning overall rabbit health, positive effects of tannin enriched diets ( Dalle Zotte & Cossu, 2009 ; Legendre et al., 2018) and the supplementation of garlic (in combination with oregano) ( Kowalska et al., 2012 ) were already shown.…”

“…Sainfoin ( Onobrychis viciifolia) is an interesting alternative due to its high content of tannins, resulting in astringent, abirritative, anti-inflammatory, slightly local anaesthetic and antimicrobial effects ( Liu et al., 2013 ; Teuscher, Melzig, Matthias & Lindequist, 2012 ). Beneficial effects on the growth rates, E. coli and Eimeria -infection rates of fattening rabbits are reported ( Dalle Zotte & Cossu, 2009 ; Legendre et al., 2018 ).…”