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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on October 8, 2009
Chemical Senses 2009 34(9):775-787; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjp063
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Prenatal Flavor Exposure Affects Flavor Recognition and Stress-Related Behavior of Piglets

Marije Oostindjer, J. Elizabeth Bolhuis, Henry van den Brand and Bas Kemp

Adaptation Physiology Group, Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, Marijkeweg 40, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands

Correspondence to be sent to: Marije Oostindjer, Adaptation Physiology Group, Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, Marijkeweg 40, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands. e-mail: marije.oostindjer{at}wur.nl


  Abstract

Exposure to flavors in the amniotic fluid and mother's milk derived from the maternal diet has been shown to modulate food preferences and neophobia of young animals of several species. Aim of the experiment was to study the effects of pre- and postnatal flavor exposure on behavior of piglets during (re)exposure to this flavor. Furthermore, we investigated whether varying stress levels, caused by different test settings, affected behavior of animals during (re)exposure. Piglets were exposed to anisic flavor through the maternal diet during late gestation and/or during lactation or never. Piglets that were prenatally exposed to the flavor through the maternal diet behaved differently compared with unexposed pigs during reexposure to the flavor in several tests, suggesting recognition of the flavor. The differences between groups were more pronounced in tests with relatively high stress levels. This suggests that stress levels, caused by the design of the test, can affect the behavior shown in the presence of the flavor. We conclude that prenatal flavor exposure affects behaviors of piglets that are indicative of recognition and that these behaviors are influenced by stress levels during (re)exposure.

Key words: behavioral tests, chemosensory learning, neophobia, pigs, preference

Accepted 31 August 2009


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