Acceso usuarios
Paul Ruiz Santos, José Manuel Verdes
La aversión alimenticia inducida por la administración de Cloruro de Litio (LiCl) ha sido descripta y utilizada en diferentes especies animales para condicionar el consumo de alimentos. En rumiantes durante el pastoreo en grupo los animales de mayor edad son los encargados de transferir el comportamiento de selección de alimentos a los más jóvenes.
El objetivo del presente trabajo fue determinar si la aversión alimenticia inducida con LiCl en ovejas adultas es transmitida a corderos no emparentados. Se utilizaron 12 ovinos, 4 ovejas adultas y 8 corderos. Luego de confirmar el consumo de ración comercial por parte de las ovejas, 3 fueron condicionadas con LiCl 200 mg/kg PV (oralmente), usando 1 como control. Se formaron 4 tríos de 1 oveja con 2 corderos, midiendo previamente el consumo de ración de los últimos, registrando la variación del consumo luego de 20 días de convivencia en estabulación. Luego de este período los corderos agrupados con ovejas condicionadas disminuyeron el consumo de ración significativamente (p < .01). El condicionamiento jerárquico en ovinos parece ser una herramienta útil para controlar la dieta y el consumo de alimentos no deseados, tales como plantas tóxicas en condiciones de pastoreo a campo natural.
Socially-Mediated Food Transmition in Ovine: Hierarchical-Conditioning by Age as a Diet-Managing Tool in Unrelated Ruminants During Foraging: Conditioning of food consumption induced by Lithium Chloride (LiCl) treatment has been reported in different animal species. In ruminants, older animals are capable of transferring selective food aversion to the youngers. The objetive of this study was to determine whether food aversion in adult sheep induced by LiCl can be transmitted to non-relative lambs. Twelve animals, four adult ewes and eight lambs were used. Three ewes were conditioned with LiCl 200 mg/kg BW (orally) to avoid concentrate consumption, while the other one acted as a control. Food consumption of lambs was recorded prior to the trial, to define pre-conditioned basal consumption. After that, animals were assigned to four groups of one sheep and two lambs each, whose food consumption was recorded for a 20-day period in lairage. Concentrate consumption decreased significantly in those lambs that were grouped with conditioned ewes (p < .01). These results suggest that hierarchical conditioning in sheep would be a useful tool to control diet and consumption of potentially harmful food like toxic plants.
