Reproductive Diseases in Farmed Rabbit Does

Abstract

In this study, we determined the occurrence of reproductive diseases in does on 1373 visited farms in Spain and Portugal, between 1994 and 2019. The retrospective information obtained was entered in a database classified as follows: apparent infertility (≤70% pregnancy rate), abortions (≥2% of serviced does), high fetal death risk at parturition (≥10%) or dystocia, amongst others. Infertility was the reason for 181 visits. The median of prevalence of apparent infertility in these cases was 35% (minimum to maximum: 25–90%) and the mean, 37.4%. We performed a prospective study to determine risk factors at the individual and farm level, with a second database corresponding to 2014–2019. We carried out pregnancy checks, assessed sanitary status and body condition, and recorded the age of 17,297 rebred lactating does on 142 farms. The median size of the farms was 800 does, and the examined cohorts, 350 does. Predisposing risk factors for infertility were observed: e.g., mastitis had an effect. During the 5-year study, we made a third database with the results from 190,508 does palpated by producers in a subset of 134 farms. In this case, the median of the prevalence of apparent infertility was 14.5% (minimum to maximum: 4.1–50%), which could be considered baseline occurrence when monitoring the theriogenology of rabbit doe farms. Reproductive rhythm was an enabling risk factor: does serviced ≤25 d postpartum were less fertile than at ≥32 d. We made a database with the body condition score (BCS) on a linear scale from 1 (emaciated) to 9 (obese). The pregnancy rate (PR) of underweight and borderline does (4/9) was 73.1%. The PR of overweight and borderline does (6/9) was 82.6% and those classified with a mean BCS (5/9): PR = 79.3%. We may infer that the optimum BCS for reproduction is 6/9, rather than 5/9. Some changes in female rabbit health and husbandry to improve reproductive performance and welfare are highlighted.

A pilot study about on-farm assessment of health and welfare in rabbits kept in different housing systems

“…associated with any major risk for health issues. In contrast, previous authors (31,32) found a relationship between genotype and prevalence of pododermatitis in commercial farms with conventional housing systems, with those with the heavier strain at a higher risk of pododermatitis. A relationship with genotype was also previously reported for the prevalence of clinical mastitis in commercial farms (18).…”

“…The majority of commercial farms use cages, i.e., standard breeding cages for reproducing does with their litters associated with bicellular cages for growing rabbits, or dual-purpose cages for both reproducing does with their litters and growing rabbits. Some farms use structurally enriched cages (11), whereas a few commercial farms use alternative systems based on parks (also called elevated pens) that can house growing rabbits in large groups (about [30][31][32][33][34][35] and reproduce does with their litters individually or, seldom, in continuous or part-time groups (11,12). Park housing systems have been tested during the last decades but are not yet widespread or validated at a commercial level all over Europe, for which the technical standards for their implementation are not yet fully available (5).…”

Effect of mastitis incidence on litter size, litter weight, and milk composition of rabbit does

“…The share of females with signs of mastitis on the farm in our study was 26.5%. This would be a very high result in comparison to Rosell et al (2020), who reported an average of 4.7% cases of mastitis over 142 farms (with 145–6000 rabbits). Importantly, all the does selected for our study at their third parity were successfully inseminated and examined at fourth parity.…”

Relationship between Body Chemical Composition and Reproductive Traits in Rabbit Does

“…Consequently, genetic selection programs and new breeding management systems were established, improving the production of the new hybrid lines used. This has led to an increase in female nutritional requirements [ 1 , 2 ], health problems [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ] and welfare necessity [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Nutritional strategies in reproductive females need to be global and consider both the short-term productive factors (litter size, milk production, or fertility) as well as the long-term factors (body condition or health).…”

“…Protein increment between the moments of the first and third AI expressed as a percentage of the initial protein content 6. Protein increment between the moments of third AI and second parturition expressed as a percentage of protein content at the second parturition 7. Fat increment between the moments of the third AI and second parturition expressed as a percentage of fat content at the second parturition.…”