Temperature and environmental enrichment on the welfare of growing rabbits

The effects of temperature and cage floor enrichment on the welfare of growing rabbits were evaluated. Forty-eight rabbits from the Botucatu genetic group, weaned at 35 days of age were housed in an Environmental Chamber, four per cage (1.00 x 0.60 x 0.40m), in 12 cages that had (or not) half of the floor covered with litter straw. The cages were housed half in a room temperature chamber and half in a refrigerated chamber. Animals had free access to a balanced feed and water in the two types of floor. In order to evaluate welfare, five 24-hour observations were carried out, one per week, to register the frequencies of the following behaviors: ludic, stereotypic, exploratory, self-grooming and interactions, and to compare them between enriched and non-enriched cages from the two chambers. The average temperatures and relative humidities were 23.6 degrees C and 78.7% in the room temperature chamber and 20.6 degrees C and 71.0% in the refrigerated chamber. The ludic behavior was more frequent in the enriched cages (7.6 vs. 4.3% Room Temperature Chamber and 7.8 vs. 3.8% Refrigerated Chamber, P<0.01) and the stereotypies in the non-enriched cages (4.4 vs. 2.7% Room Temperature Chamber and 2.1 vs 1.1% Refrigerated Chamber, P<0.01). Rabbits kept at room temperature preferred the wire net floor over the litter straw (77.9 vs. 22.1%, P<0.01), whereas in the refrigerated chamber they did not show preference regarding floor types (45.9 vs. 54.1%, P=0.41). In the refrigerated chamber, cage floor enrichment favored animal welfare.