Preliminary Study of Body Temperature Emissivity in Rabbits Selected for Litter Size Residual Variability

A divergent selection for litter size residual variability has been carried out in rabbits during 12 generations. Litter size residual variability was estimated as phenotypic variance of litter size within females after correcting for the year-season and the parity-lactation status effects. Stress causes an increase in core body temperature. Infrared thermography (IRT) has been shown to be a useful technique for identifying changes in body temperature emissivity. The aim of this work is to study the correlated response to selection for litter size residual variability in body temperature emissivity at natural mating. Natural mating can be considered a stressful stimulus for does. Temperature was measured in the eyeball by IRT before mating (basal temperature) and after 5 min, 30 min, and 60 min in does of the lines selected to decrease and to increase litter size residual variability (i.e., the Low and the High lines). Both lines showed similar basal temperature. Eyeball temperature was increased slightly in the Low line from basal state to 5 min after stressful stimulus (from 35.69 °C to 36.32 °C), and this increase remained up to 60 min after stress (36.55 °C). The High line showed a higher temperature than the Low line at 30 min (+0.96 °C, p = 0.99). At 60 min, temperature was similar between lines. The evolution of temperature was different between lines: the High line reached the peak of temperature later than the Low line (at 30 min vs. 5 min), and its peak was higher compared to the Low line (36.95 °C vs. 36.32 °C). In conclusion, the does selected for reducing litter size variability showed a lower increase in temperature after a stressful stimulus, therefore showing lower stress and consequently better welfare