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The role of gut barrier against pathogens and its interaction with dietary factors in weaned rabbits affected with digestive disorders, especially epizootic rabbit enteropathy is reviewed. This interaction was studied identifying nutritive factors that influence gut barrier function of mucosa. It was examined the morphology, and enzyme activity of mucosa and the gut associated immune system. Besides, it was characterized the substrate that reaches the caecum and its capacity to favour pathogen bacteria growth, by reviewing the effect of diet on ileal digestibility of nutrients, transit time and microbiota population. The nutritional factors which affect health of early weaned rabbits are level and type of both fibre and protein. The optimal dietary level of insoluble fibre to minimise mortality is 30-32%. Furthermore, a moderate inclusion of soluble fibre (12%) improves mucosa integrity and decreases mortality and the frequency of detection of Clostridium perfringens and Campylobacter spp in the caecum. The reduction of ileal nitrogen flow had a positive effect on pups viability and frequency of detection of C. perfringens. Furthermore, dietary supplementation with 1% of glutamine reduced fattening mortality, the frequency of detection of C. perfringens, and Helicobacter spp, and diminished the counts of Eimeria spp at the jejunum. In conclusion, a correct diet formulation may help to limit the epizootic rabbit enteropathy incidence in weaned rabbits., Depto. de Genética, Fisiología y Microbiología, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of a reduction in dietary sodium content on performance and nutrient digestibility, in rabbits weaned at 25 days of age. Two diets with the same composition and only differing in the supply of sodium chloride content (0.5 or 0%) were used. A reduction on the dietary sodium content from 2.7 to 0.6 g kg–1 DM decreased the ileal and faecal apparent digestibility of dry matter, crude protein and the ileal apparent digestibility of every amino acid studied with the exception of the phenylalanine, and reduced daily weight gain, feed intake and feed efficiency. These results indicate that a reduction of the dietary sodium content up to 0.6 g kg–1 DM results excessive and insufficient to assure a correct absorption of nutrients and to maintain the growth performance in growing rabbit., Depto. de Genética, Fisiología y Microbiología, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of source of protein (soybean vs sunflower meal) and enzyme supplementation (no enzyme vs protease addition vs protease + xylanase addition) on digestion and growth traits of rabbits. Treatments were arranged factorially in six isonutritive diets. Two hundred and forty rabbits weaned at 25 or 35 days were used to measure dry matter and crude protein apparent ileal digestibility of diets at 35 or 45 days of age, respectively. Another one hundred and eighty animals weaned at 35 days were fed ad libitum in individual cages during four weeks to determine fattening performance. Source of protein did not affect digestion efficiency or feed conversion rate in the whole fattening period, but animals fed soybean meal-based diets showed higher feed intake, grew faster and had higher mortality than those fed sunflower meal-based diets. Addition of enzymes increased ileal apparent digestibility, especially in youngest animals when supplements contained xylanase besides protease activity. Enzyme supplementation did not affect any of the growth traits studied, but decreased fattening mortality in sunflower meal-based diets., Depto. de Genética, Fisiología y Microbiología, Fac. de Ciencias Biológicas, TRUE, pub