Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Mexico.
CIAD A.C. Coordinación Culiacán, Culiacán Rosales, Mexico.
PLoS One. 2024 Aug 28;19(8):e0307803. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307803. eCollection 2024.
Parasites and obesity are health problems worldwide. Rabbits are production animals yielding one of the healthiest meats, also taking advantage of skin, hair, limbs and excreta. It is among the most frequent pets in some countries and widely used as animal model in research. Psoroptes cuniculi is a mite of high transmission rate, affecting welfare and production and obesity causes multiple metabolic, endocrine and immunological disorders, being an emerging problem in domestic animals. Obesity and acarosis are prolonged stressors, modifying the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis that can induce metabolic and behavioral disorders. Alterations caused by comorbidities could be similar to or different from those induced by each morbidity separately. We analyzed the influence of obesity on the infection degree with P. cuniculi and on behavior and production. Rabbit does induced to obesity were infected and mated; behaviors in the open field test, obesity estimation indices and productive parameters at delivery and weaning were analyzed. The acarosis induced a decrease in feed intake and a decrease in body weight, a decrease in locomotor, exploratory and chinning behaviors in normal weight and obese does. The infection induced 23% mortality at birth, obesity 45% and comorbidity 74%, while in normal weight rabbits a 6.5% was observed. Weight gain from birth to weaning was lower in the comorbid group, reaching a litter weight of 4.5±0.13 kg in healthy normal weight does and 2.6±0.67 kg in comorbid does. The disturbances induced by the comorbidity were magnified in both behavioral and productive parameters.
寄生虫和肥胖是全球范围内的健康问题。兔子是一种生产动物，其肉是最健康的肉类之一，同时还可以利用其皮、毛、四肢和排泄物。在一些国家，兔子是最常见的宠物之一，在研究中也被广泛用作动物模型。兔疥螨是一种高传播率的螨虫，会影响福利和生产，而肥胖会导致多种代谢、内分泌和免疫紊乱，是家畜中一个新兴的问题。肥胖和螨病是长期的应激源，会改变下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴的活性，从而导致代谢和行为紊乱。合并症引起的改变可能与单独一种疾病引起的改变相似或不同。我们分析了肥胖对感染程度、行为和生产的影响。诱导肥胖的母兔被感染并交配；在开放场测试中分析行为，肥胖估计指数以及分娩和断奶时的生产参数。螨病导致采食量和体重下降，正常体重和肥胖母兔的运动、探索和啃咬行为减少。感染导致出生时死亡率为 23%，肥胖为 45%，合并症为 74%，而正常体重兔子的死亡率为 6.5%。从出生到断奶的体重增加在合并症组中较低，健康正常体重母兔的窝重为 4.5±0.13 公斤，而合并症母兔的窝重为 2.6±0.67 公斤。合并症在行为和生产参数方面引起的干扰更大。
