Specificity of early handling: Are rabbit pups able to distinguish between people?

The Interaction Between Behavioral and Physical Health in Rabbits

Behavioral and physical health are intricately interconnected in most animals, and the rabbit is no different. Medical or physical conditions can lead to anxiety and stress, and anxiety and stress can lead to physical illness. Rabbits are very prone to fear, anxiety, and stress, especially when their husbandry is not appropriate and their environmental and behavioral needs are not met. Any rabbit presenting for acute behavior changes should be examined thoroughly for underlying medical conditions and the appropriateness of their environment examined equally closely. Physical health is unlikely to exist without behavioral and/or emotional health and vice versa.

Welfare of domestic birds and rabbits transported in containers

This opinion, produced upon a request from the European Commission, focuses on transport of domestic birds and rabbits in containers (e.g. any crate, box, receptacle or other rigid structure used for the transport of animals, but not the means of transport itself). It describes and assesses current transport practices in the EU, based on data from literature, Member States and expert opinion. The species and categories of domestic birds assessed were mainly chickens for meat (broilers), end-of-lay hens and day-old chicks. They included to a lesser extent pullets, turkeys, ducks, geese, quails and game birds, due to limited scientific evidence. The opinion focuses on road transport to slaughterhouses or to production sites. For day-old chicks, air transport is also addressed. The relevant stages of transport considered are preparation, loading, journey, arrival and uncrating. Welfare consequences associated with current transport practices were identified for each stage. For loading and uncrating, the highly relevant welfare consequences identified are handling stress, injuries, restriction of movement and sensory overstimulation. For the journey and arrival, injuries, restriction of movement, sensory overstimulation, motion stress, heat stress, cold stress, prolonged hunger and prolonged thirst are identified as highly relevant. For each welfare consequence, animal-based measures (ABMs) and hazards were identified and assessed, and both preventive and corrective or mitigative measures proposed. Recommendations on quantitative criteria to prevent or mitigate welfare consequences are provided for microclimatic conditions, space allowances and journey times for all categories of animals, where scientific evidence and expert opinion support such outcomes.

Use of Gnawing Hay Blocks: Effects on Productive Performance, Behavior and Reactivity of Growing Rabbits Kept in Parks with Different Sex-Group Compositions

To improve animal welfare in collective park housing systems, this study assessed the effects of the provision of gnawing hay blocks and the group composition (F: females, M: males, FM: mixed sex) on performance, behavior, and reactivity of 288 growing rabbits reared in 18 parks (16 rabbits/park) from 31 to 73 days of age. The presence of gnawing blocks inside the feeding area of the parks scarcely affected performance and budget time, but decreased the time spent in the resting area compared to parks without blocks (p < 0.001); it increased the time spent moving during the open field test (p < 0.05) and the rate of rabbits that approached the object in the novel-object test (p < 0.05). As for sex-group composition, the feed conversion ratio was lower in parks F and FM than in park M (p < 0.05). During the open-field test, FM rabbits spent more time moving (p < 0.05), whereas M rabbits displayed self-grooming for a longer time (p < 0.01). Results related to production, behavior, and reactivity indicate the provision of gnawing blocks for welfare improvement, but do not support the change from current mixed-sex to single-sex rearing.

Behaviour and reactivity of growing rabbits housed in collective pens: Effects of floor type and stocking density at different ages

At 33 d of age, 376 crossbred rabbits of both genders were housed in sex-mixed groups in 16 open-top collective pens (1.68 m²) in a factorial arrangement, with 2 types of flooring (wooden slats <em>vs.</em> plastic grid, W <em>vs.</em> P) and 2 stocking densities (12 <em>vs.</em> 16 animals/m²). Behavioural recordings (time budget), reactivity towards unknown humans (tonic immobility and human approach tests) and environment (open-field and novel object tests) and hair and faeces sampling for corticosterone analysis were performed during the 8^th wk of age and at a pre-slaughter age (during the 11-12^th wk of age). The effects of age and gender were also taken into account. Rabbits housed in W pens rested more in the crouched position (41.4 <em>vs.</em> 35.5% of the observed time) (<em>P</em>&lt;0.001) and showed lower allogrooming (<em>P</em>=0.05), running (<em>P</em>&lt;0.01) and biting pen elements (<em>P</em>=0.01) than those housed in P pens. The percentage of rabbits that interacted with humans during the human approach test (24.0 <em>vs.</em> 48.1% of rabbits in the pen; <em>P</em>&lt;0.01) and number of rabbit-object contacts during the novel object test (on av. 50.4 <em>vs.</em> 87.2; <em>P</em>&lt;0.001) were lower for rabbits in W pens compared to those in P pens. During the open-field test, the percentage of rabbits that spontaneously entered the arena was lower for rabbits from W pens than for those from P pens (60.0 <em>vs.</em> 72.5%; <em>P</em>&lt;0.05). Finally, the hair corticosterone level was higher in the former than in the latter rabbits (on av. 14.0 <em>vs.</em> 12.5 ng/g; <em>P</em>&lt;0.05). As the stocking density increased, only the time spent resting increased (66.7 to 69.1% observed time; <em>P</em>&lt;0.01), and the percentage of rabbits that spontaneously entered the arena during the open-field test decreased (73.8 to 58.8%; <em>P</em>&lt;0.01). When age increased, the rabbits were less active at the reactivity tests and interacted less with an unknown object or person. Differences according to gender were weak. In conclusion, the wooden slatted floor challenged the welfare of growing rabbits as it constrained their movement, conditioned their reactivity towards a new environment, and increased their stress level, whereas the increase in stocking density did not impair rabbit welfare.

Post-oral and perioral stimulations during nursing enhance appetitive olfactory memory in neonatal rabbits

Nursing-suckling interactions facilitate olfactory learning in newborns as long as suckling and the olfactory stimulus temporally overlap. We tested the hypothesis that olfactory preferences would develop even with a long delay between odor presentation and nursing. Thyme was presented to 2-day-old rabbit pups by placing an odorized plate 2 cm above their nest box. Duration and time of nursing were controlled and occurred before, during, or after odor presentation. Controls were not nursed. When exposed to the odor for 15 min, control pups preferred thyme to a novel odor in a 2-choice test immediately after exposure but not 3 and 22 h later. When pups were nursed immediately before thyme exposure or during exposure, they preferred the familiar odorant until 22 h later. Identically, when nursing occurred 30 min before odor exposure, a preference for thyme was maintained up to 22 h. This was not observed when nursing occurred 60 min before odor presentation. We concluded that enhancement of olfactory memory occurs in neonates during nursing but also after post-oral stimulation by postprandial internal state.