Villamayor, P.R.; Gullón, J.; Yáñez, U.; Sánchez, M.; Sánchez-Quinteiro, P.; Martínez, P.; Quintela, L. Assessment of Biostimulation Methods Based on Chemical Communication in Female Doe Reproduction. Animals2022, 12, 308.
Villamayor, P.R.; Gullón, J.; Yáñez, U.; Sánchez, M.; Sánchez-Quinteiro, P.; Martínez, P.; Quintela, L. Assessment of Biostimulation Methods Based on Chemical Communication in Female Doe Reproduction. Animals 2022, 12, 308.
Villamayor, P.R.; Gullón, J.; Yáñez, U.; Sánchez, M.; Sánchez-Quinteiro, P.; Martínez, P.; Quintela, L. Assessment of Biostimulation Methods Based on Chemical Communication in Female Doe Reproduction. Animals2022, 12, 308.
Villamayor, P.R.; Gullón, J.; Yáñez, U.; Sánchez, M.; Sánchez-Quinteiro, P.; Martínez, P.; Quintela, L. Assessment of Biostimulation Methods Based on Chemical Communication in Female Doe Reproduction. Animals 2022, 12, 308.
Abstract
Biostimulation is an animal management practice that helps improve reproductive parameters by modulating animal sensory systems. Chemical signals, mostly known as pheromones, have a great potential in this regard. This study was conducted to determine the influence of short-term female rabbit exposure to different conditions, mainly pheromone-mediated, on reproductive parameters of inseminated does. Groups of 60 females/each were exposed to 1) female urine, 2) male urine, 3) seminal plasma and 4) female-female interaction, just before artificial insemination, and compared to isolated females controls (female-female separated). The following reproductive parameters were analyzed for each group: receptivity (vulvar color), fertility (calving rate), prolificacy and number of born alive and dead kits ⁄ litter. Our results showed that the biostimulation methods employed in this experiment did not significantly improve any of the analyzed parameters. However, female doe exposure to urine, especially to male urine, slightly increased fertility levels when compared to the rest of the experimental conditions. Female-female interaction before artificial insemination, which is a common practice in rabbit farms, did not have any effect, which suggests its removal to avoid unnecessary animal management and time cost. On the other hand, fertility ranges were lower for animals with pale vulvar color whereas no differences were noticed among the other three colours which measure receptivity (pink, red, purple), thus suggesting that these three colours could be grouped together. Additionally, equine chorionic gonadotropin injection could be replaced with various biostimulation methods, therefore reducing or replacing current hormonal treatments, and contributing to animal welfare and to a natural image of animal production.
Biology and Life Sciences, Animal Science, Veterinary Science and Zoology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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