Physiological and immunological aspects of feed restriction and its beneficial impacts in fattening rabbits' productivity-an updated review.

Publisher: Springer Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 1277355 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1573-7438 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00494747 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Trop Anim Health Prod Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2005- : Heidelberg : Springer
Original Publication: Edinburgh, Livingstone.

Rabbits*/physiology ; Body Weight* ; Animal Husbandry* ; Diet*/veterinary; Animals ; Animal Feed

Two feed restriction (FR) regimens are utilized with weaned rabbits including a quantitative FR (amount-limited feed or time-restricted admission to feed) and a qualitative FR (modulation of diet content especially protein and energy). The use of post-weaning FR may help in preventing post-weaning digestive disorders, stimulating compensating growth, improving feed efficiency, and decreasing carcass fat content. Interestingly, FR may contribute to changing meat's chemical composition and its physical quality attributes by regulating the morphological and biochemical characteristics of muscle fibers. Also, FR could enhance the gastrointestinal tract development, its histomorphology, and improve feed digestibility and absorption. Furthermore, FR regimens are involved in establishing gut microbial balance and enhancing the host immunological response. It might be concluded that post-weaning FR is involved in influencing the physiological and immunological aspects of growing rabbits. It might be documented that light to mild FR (i.e., 80-90% AL), early (i.e., at the first 2 weeks post-weaning), and relatively short in duration (i.e., for 2-3 weeks) had no negative effects on live body weight, while severing FR reduced live body weight in comparison with ad libitum rabbits.
(© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

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Keywords: Immunity; Intestinal histomorphology; Microbiota; Performance; Rabbits; Feed restriction

Date Created: 20240106 Date Completed: 20240109 Latest Revision: 20240201

20240201

10.1007/s11250-023-03881-0

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