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Physiological and immunological aspects of feed restriction and its beneficial impacts in fattening rabbits’ productivity—an updated review

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Abstract

Two feed restriction (FR) regimens are utilized with weaned rabbits including a quantitative FR (amount-limited feed or time-restricted admission to feed) and a qualitative FR (modulation of diet content especially protein and energy). The use of post-weaning FR may help in preventing post-weaning digestive disorders, stimulating compensating growth, improving feed efficiency, and decreasing carcass fat content. Interestingly, FR may contribute to changing meat’s chemical composition and its physical quality attributes by regulating the morphological and biochemical characteristics of muscle fibers. Also, FR could enhance the gastrointestinal tract development, its histomorphology, and improve feed digestibility and absorption. Furthermore, FR regimens are involved in establishing gut microbial balance and enhancing the host immunological response. It might be concluded that post-weaning FR is involved in influencing the physiological and immunological aspects of growing rabbits. It might be documented that light to mild FR (i.e., 80–90% AL), early (i.e., at the first 2 weeks post-weaning), and relatively short in duration (i.e., for 2–3 weeks) had no negative effects on live body weight, while severing FR reduced live body weight in comparison with ad libitum rabbits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Production and Breeding, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, 51452, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia

    Tarek Amin Ebeid & Ibrahim Hamad Al-Homidan

  2. Department of Poultry Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh, 33516, Egypt

    Tarek Amin Ebeid & Ahmed Ali Saleh

  3. Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, 51452, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia

    Hassan Ahmed Barakat

  4. Food Technology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University, Moshtohor, 13736, Egypt

    Hassan Ahmed Barakat

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  1. Tarek Amin Ebeid
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TAE had the idea for the article and wrote the manuscript with support from IHA-H, AAS, and HAB. All authors approve of the content of the manuscript.

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Ebeid, T.A., Al-Homidan, I.H., Saleh, A.A. et al. Physiological and immunological aspects of feed restriction and its beneficial impacts in fattening rabbits’ productivity—an updated review. Trop Anim Health Prod 56, 33 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03881-0

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