Nutritional Metabolites as Biomarkers of Previous Feed Intake in European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus): Applications on Conservation

Abstract

European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) populations have drastically reduced, and recently, rabbits have been classed as “endangered” by the IUCN. This animal plays an important ecological role in Mediterranean ecosystems and its introduction could significantly contribute to ecological restoration. Rabbits have high nutrient requirements that apparently cannot be covered in all ecosystems, and there are clues that nutrition can limit their abundance and density. On the other hand, some studies reflect the effects of food availability on the metabolomic status of other animal species, but there are no specific studies on this keystone species. The main aim of this work is to find biomarkers to assess the previous levels of ingestion of European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). To address this gap, gastric content and blood samples were collected from European rabbits (n = 99) in a Mediterranean area for the analysis of glucose, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), plasmatic urea nitrogen (PUN), albumin, glutamate and total protein metabolites. Depending on their previous feed intake (gastric content and the ratio between the gastric content and the weight of the animal), the animals were divided into two groups (lower and normal previous feed intake). Our work shows that the metabolomic profiles of the animals were affected. Levels of glucose (+82%; p = 0.0003), NEFA (–61%; p = 0.0040) and PUN (+139%; p < 0.001) were different in the animals with lower previous feed intake than the animals with normal previous feed intake. This work summarises that metabolic phenotype can be interesting when seeking to discover the limiting nutrients and food availability in diets that could affect the ecological fitness and conservation of European wild rabbits. It is important to mention that in this work, only the effects on six different metabolites have been analysed and more studies are necessary to complement the knowledge of possible metabolites that indicate the level of ingestion in this species and others. These (and new) biomarkers could be used as a tool to provide information about individual or population characteristics that other physiological parameters cannot detect, improving the conservation physiology field.

Unravelling the Role of Metabolites for Detecting Physiological State of Wild Animals: European Rabbit’s (Oryctolagus cuniculus) Case

“…(ii) Glucose, NEFA, and albumins showed potential as biomarkers of animals’ physiological states. Although recently the potential of nutritional metabolites has been demonstrated as an indicator of the level of previous intake [ 43 ], further studies are necessary to improve the knowledge of metabolic pathways with potential application as biomarkers, also using integrated OMICs sciences, to upgrade animal conservation.…”

Targeted and untargeted metabolomic profiles in wild rabbit does (Oryctolagus cuniculus) of different breeding states (pregnant and lactating)

“…Targeted metabolomics (n = 29) analysed were: plasmatic urea nitrogen (PUN), nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA), glucose, albumin and total protein, since they had been studied previously in wild rabbits (Marín‐García et al, 2022a, 2022b; Marín‐García et al, 2023).…”

“…This impact has been extensively studied in rabbit production, wherein lactating animals exhibit higher nutritional requirements compared to pregnant rabbit does (Fortun‐Lamothe, 2006). In recent years, studies in this species combining issues of molecular ecology with the fitness of the species have started to appear (Marín‐García et al, 2022b, 2022b).…”

The nutritional strategy of European rabbits is affected by age and sex: Females eat more and have better nutrient optimisation

“…Another option is to study through microhistological analysis of faecal pellets (Marques & Mathias, 2001), but this work uses gastric content because there exists a correlation between feed intake and gastric content (Sanderson & Vanderweele, 1975). It is interesting to know all the nutritional components ingested and the degree of use relating it to blood parameters (Marín‐García et al, 2022a, 2022b).…”