Effects of Postpartum Separation of Rabbit Offspring from their Mothers on Pregnancy Rate, Milk Production, Behavioral Indicators, Blood Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress, Hormonal Levels, and Performance of Young Rabbits from Birth to Weaning

Abstract

The goal of the study was to determine how the 22-hour daily separation of newborn bunnies from their mothers affected the health and ability of doe rabbits to reproduce as well as the survival of the young from birth to weaning. In this study, twenty female New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits were employed, immediately following first parity. The young rabbits were left with their mothers for the first two days after kindling so they could nurse on colostrum. By adding or removing the kits on the third day, the quantity of each litter for each mother was consistent with six, ensuring an equal number of litters at the beginning of the experiment. One of the two groups of animals received a random distribution of female rabbits. Ten does in group one acted as controls and remained with their kits in a group during free lactation (doe-litter together, DLT). In group two, ten does were isolated for 22 hours from their litter (doe-litter separated, DLS). The findings revealed that mothers in the DLS group had a higher (P<0.01) conception rate (28.6%), significantly lower (P<0.05) feed intake, and milk output than mothers in the DLT group. At all experimental ages, the body weight of the separated offspring from their mothers was considerably lower than that of the DLT group (P<0.05). Concentrations of blood biochemical and hormonal levels were affected (P<0.05) due to separation. On day 7, the antioxidant enzyme activities were considerably lower (P<0.05) in the DLS group of rabbits than in the DLT group of animals. It can be inferred that the separation of the kits from their mothers has an impact on the mothers at the beginning of separation while the isolation approach raises the level of the hormone estradiol, which improves the rate of conception.