Are sheep able to develop preferences or aversions in response to an increase of rumen fill?
We conducted two conditioning experiments to investigate whether sheep are able to develop preferences of aversions in response to an increase of rumen fill performed with 300 or 600 g chopped straw introduced through the rumen fistula. When sheep where fed a basal diet of hay (Experiment 1) they developed aversions against the feeds associated with the increase of rumen fill without a dose effect. When they were fed a diet of pellets of beet pulp (Experiment 2) they developed neither preferences nor aversions. These results indicate that physical consequences of feed intake are integrated by the animals and that they can contribute to diet choice via diet learning.
diet learning rumen fill straw sheep
R.Baumont J.Jamot C.Ginane
INRA, UR1213 Unit for Herbivorous Research 63122 Saint Genès Champanelle, France
国际会议
The 7tb International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores(ISNH-7)(第七届国际草食动物营养研讨会)
北京
英文
954-959
2007-09-16（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）