Short communication: Assessment of activity patterns of growing rabbits in a flux-controlled chamber

[EN] Flux-controlled and metabolic chambers are often used for nutritional and environmental studies. However, the potential alterations of animal behaviour and welfare are so far not fully understood. In consequence, this study had 2 main objectives: to assess potential alterations of animal activi...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Olivas, Irene, Rodríguez Latorre, Andrés Rafael, Estellés, F.|||0000-0001-6774-6075, Calvet, S.|||0000-0001-6639-9892, Villagrá, Arantxa
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repositorio:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/31016
Acesso em linha:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/31016
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Rabbit
Behaviour
Flux chamber
Rearing
Descrição
Resumo:[EN] Flux-controlled and metabolic chambers are often used for nutritional and environmental studies. However, the potential alterations of animal behaviour and welfare are so far not fully understood. In consequence, this study had 2 main objectives: to assess potential alterations of animal activity pattern and time budget inside a flux chamber, and to assess the importance of the "rearing up" behaviour. To this end, 10 growing rabbits of different ages (from 1 to 5 wk of the growing period) were housed inside a flux chamber. Their activity was continuously recorded and assessed, determining the frequency and duration of 8 different behaviours: lying, sleeping, sitting, eating, drinking, walking, rearing up and others. Nocturnal rabbit behaviour and time budget were not altered inside the chamber if compared to previously described rabbit activity under conventional cages. In addition, rabbits in this experiment presented a tendency to perform "rearing up" when housed inside the flux chamber.