Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 56 ›› Issue (2): 755-764.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2025.02.025

• Animal Nutrition and Feeds • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Dietary Chlorogenic Acid on Reproductive Performance of Female Rabbits and Growth of Suckling Rabbits under Heat Stress Conditions

LIANG Hui1,2(), ZHAO Jing1,2, WANG Yanya1,2, LONG Runze1,2, LIU Xuyang1,2, WU Yingjie1,2, LIU Ning1,2,*(), QIN Yinghe1,2,*()   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
    2. National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2024-05-06 Online:2025-02-23 Published:2025-02-26
  • Contact: LIU Ning, QIN Yinghe E-mail:lianghuineau@163.com;dadaliu@cau.edu.cn;qinyinghe@cau.edu.cn

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of chlorogenic acid (CGA) on the reproductive performance of female rabbits and the growth of suckling rabbits under heat stress conditions, and to screen the optimum dosage of CGA supplemented in basal diet. Four hundred and sixty Hyla female rabbits with similar body weight and parity were randomly assigned into five groups: Control group (basal diet), CGA-200 group (basal diet+200 mg·kg-1 CGA), CGA-400 group (basal diet+400 mg·kg-1 CGA), CGA-600 group (basal diet+600 mg·kg-1 CGA) and CGA-800 group (basal diet+800 mg·kg-1 CGA). The pre-feeding period lasted for 7 days, and the experimental period lasted for 71 days. During the experiment, the environmental temperature and relative humidity of the rabbit house were monitored and recorded to calculate the temperature-humidity index (THI), and the reproductive performance and serum antioxidant capacity were determined. The results of THI showed that the proportions of heat stress conditions were 67%, in which extreme heat stress, severe heat stress and moderate heat stress were 27%, 20% and 20%, respectively. Results showed that the conception rate and farrowing rate in CGA-400 group were significantly elevated by 29.08 percentage points (71.25% vs. 42.17%) and 18.77 percentage points (52.50% vs. 33.73%), respectively, when compared with the control group (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the litter size and number of kits born alive in 400 mg·kg-1 CGA group were significantly enhanced by 0.80 (8.36 vs. 7.56) and 1.01 (7.64 vs. 6.63) (P < 0.05). Moreover, 400 mg·kg-1 CGA supplementation significantly enhanced overall weight of the litter, the weight of litters born alive, and the average body weight of kits born alive when compared with control group (P < 0.05). Furthermore, dietary supplemented with 400 mg·kg-1 CGA significantly increased the litter weight and average body weight of suckling rabbits at 7, 14, 21 and 35 days after birth (P < 0.05). Additionally, dietary supplemented with 400 mg·kg-1 CGA significantly enhanced the concentration of progesterone (P), total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities(P < 0.05), and significantly reduced MDA concentration in the serum of females rabbits when compared with that of the control group at the 15th day of gestation (P < 0.05). Collectively, dietary supplemented with 400 mg·kg-1 CGA significantly improved reproductive performance of female rabbits and the growth of suckling rabbits under heat stress. In conclusion, 400 mg·kg-1 CGA can alleviate heat stress-induced oxidative stress, improve reproductive performance of female rabbits and the growth of suckling rabbits.

Key words: chlorogenic acid, heat stress, female rabbit, reproductive performance, suckling rabbits

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