Impact of feed restriction and of the hygiene of housing on rabbit performances and health

Introduction: Limiting the post-weaning intake of the young rabbit is now known to improve its resistance to digestive troubles (Gidenne et al. 2012), while the feed conversion is improved. In contrast a poor hygiene of housing is supposed to have a negative impact on performances and health, as demonstrated in the piglet (Le Floc'h et al., 2010). However, these two factors may interact in determining performances and health as recently showed in pig (Pastorelli et al., 2012). We thus aimed to determine the effect of a moderate post-weaning feed restriction in the rabbit to cope with a poor housing hygiene, in terms of growth and health. Methods: Restriction and housing hygiene were studied…