Evaluation of anxiety and cerebral morphology of rabbits in enriched cages

• Grant number: 13/09779-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2013
• End date: June 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Ecology of Domestic Animals and Ethology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Silvia Alves Meira Tavares Moura
• Grantee: Ana Silvia Alves Meira Tavares Moura
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This study has two objectives. The first is to evaluate the anxiety of rabbits exposed to environmental and social enrichment. The second is to assess brain morphology from a sample from a sample of these animals. Fifty-six weaned male rabbits from the Botucatu genetic group weaned at 35 days will be used up to 77 days of age. The animals will be assigned to a completely randomized design with a 2x2 factorial arrangement (with or without environmental enrichment, with or without social enrichment) and four replicates. The animals with social enrichment will be housed in collective cages, six per cage, whereas the ones deprived of social contact will be housed in individual cages. Half the cages will be enriched with eucalyptus sticks hang to the cage ceiling. Anxiety-related behaviors will be evaluated using the elevated plus-maze in two observations, with 5 min each, at 49 and 77 days of age. Growth performance of animals will also be registered. At 77 days of age one animal from each replicate from all treatments will be taken for the second study, in which the neuronal morphology from layers III and V from the brain cortex in the primary and secondary somato-sensorial areas (parietal cortex) and the primary and secondary motor area (frontal cortex) will be evaluated through a neurotracer injection to stain the cellular body and its major dendrites using a stereotaxic approach. The data obtained by observing the behavior of animals will be compared using a two-way repeated measures analysis of variance, whereas the data from the morphological analyses will be compared using only two-way analyses of variance. (AU)