Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2017, 6th- 8th June, Milan, Italy 

HAF © 2013 

Vol. IV, No. 1s   ISSN: 2283-3927 

   

 

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Keywords 

Dietary supplementation, 

Natural extracts, Nutrition, 

Rabbit does, Reproduction 

 

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR 

Sara Chiapparini 

sara.chiapparini@unimi.it 

 

JOURNAL HOME PAGE 

riviste.unimi.it/index.php/haf 

Effect of dietary natural extracts  

mixture on rabbit does  

reproductive performances:  

preliminary data 

Sara Chiapparini1*, Francesco Vizzarri2, Raffaella Rossi1,  

Donato Casamassima2, Giuseppe Maiorano2, Carlo Corino1 

 

 

 

1 University of Milan, Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety, Italy  

2 University of Molise, Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, Italy 

 

Abstract 

Natural extracts have been widely reported to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial 

activities related to their phenolic content (Pereira et al., 2009). In rabbit, the reproductive phase is 

critical, therefore, nutritional strategies are required (Castellini et al., 2003; Roche et al., 2000). The 

aim was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with natural extracts in rabbit does on 

reproductive parameters. The trial was performed at the Research Institute for animal production 

(Nitra, Slovak Republic). Sixty does, artificially inseminated, were divided into three experimental 

groups. The first fed a basal diet (C), the second (T1) and the third one (T2) received 0.3% and 0.6% of 

natural extracts mixture for gestation and lactation period. The mixture contains polyphenols from 

plants and seaweeds.  Does were allocated in individual flat-deck cages and at parturition, the number 

of kits and the litters weights were recorded. The data were analyzed by one way Analysis of Variance 

using SPSS (IBM. SSPS Statistics 24). Dietary supplementation did not affect (P>0.05) number of kids 

born (8.0 ± 1.0 C vs 7.3 ± 0.97 T1 and 7.4 ± 1.0 T2) and birth weight (63 ± 2.0 g C vs 60.1 ± 2.3 g T1 and 

61.0 ± 2.4 g T2).  The administration of natural extracts in does did not improve (P>0.05) the kits 

average daily gain (20.54 ± 1.3 g/d C vs 21.92 ± 0.5 g/d T1 and 20.93 ± 0.9 g/d T2) and body weight at 

weaning (829 ± 16.6 g C vs 834 ± 26.6 g T1 and 826 ± 26.8 g T2). These preliminary data showed that at 

the present dosage, the natural extracts mixture is not able to affect does reproductive performance. 

However, further research is needed to confirm the present data and explore the mechanism of action 

of this natural mixture 
 

References 

Castellini, C., Dal Bosco, A., Mugnai, C., 2003. Comparison of different reproduction protocols for rabbit does: effect 

of litter size and mating interval. Livestock and Production Science. 83, 131-139. 

Pereira, D.,M., Valentão, P., Pereira, J.,A., Andrade, P.,B., 2003.  Phenolics: from chemistry to biology. Molecules. 14, 

2202-2211. 

Roche, J.,F., Mackey, D., Diskin, M.,D., 2000. Reproductive management of postpartum cows. Animal Reproductive 

Science. 60-61, 703-712. 

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