Effects of a split 48-hour doe-litter separation on productivity of free nursing does and their litters

To prevent the weight loss of litters, and the distress of both rabbit does and their litters due to doe-litter separation (DLS), without losing its beneficial effects on fertility, the DLS, lasting 48 h before artificial insemination (AI), was split into two periods of 24 h with a short controlled suckling.Initially, 105 does of different parity were divided into three groups. During the post partum, the free-nursing does were treated as follows: regular DLS (R-DLS), the nest-box was closed for 48 h, from days 9 to 11, before AI; split DLS (S-DLS), the nest-box was closed for 24 h and, after suckling, for other 24 h before AI; control, does had free access to the nest-box.Fertility improved (P≤0.05) in both R-DLS (60.9%) and S-DLS (59.4%) does compared to control does (44.1%). R-DLS and S-DLS does showed lower rabbit losses from days 14 to 35 (P≤0.001) and higher litter sizes at weaning (P≤0.05) than control does. Whereas the S-DLS did not affect the growth-rate and the weight of nursed rabbits until the weaning, the R-DLS reduced growth from days 9 to 14 (9.3, 13.2 and 14.0 g/day for R-DLS, S-DLS and control, respectively; P≤0.001) and the weaning weight of rabbits (732, 777, 780 g for R-DLS, S-DLS and control, respectively; P≤0.01). Productivity improved by 35.4% and 44.2% with R-DLS and S-DLS, respectively.