Development of conditioned taste aversion to Mascagnia rigida in goats

Abstract

RESUMO.-[Desenvolvimento de condicionamento aversivo ao sabor de Mascagnia rigida em caprinos.]O objetivo do presente estudo foi determinar se os caprinos podem desenvolver aversão ao consumo de Mascagnia rigida, uma planta tóxica encontrada na região semiárida do nordeste brasileiro. Catorze caprinos machos não familiarizados com M. rigida foram separados ao acaso em dois grupos de tratamento: controle (tratados com 5,5mL de água por via oral por meio de uma seringa dosadora) e grupo tratado lítio (tratados com 100mg de LiCl/kg de peso corpóreo por via oral por meio de uma seringa dosadora). The aim of this study was to determine whether goats could be averted from consuming Mascagnia rigida, a toxic plant found in the semiarid region of northeastern Brazil. Fourteen male goats not previously familiarized to M. rigida were randomly allocated to two treatment groups: control (treated with 5.5mL water orally by a drenching gun) and lithium group (treated with 100mg LiCl/kg body weight orally by a drenching gun). For conditioning, goats were allowed to feed on M. rigida leaves for 15 min, followed by LiCl or water administration. The time spent on eating M. rigida leaves was measured. The conditioning was repeated daily until the LiCl-treated goats stopped eating M. rigida. On the 10th, 17th, and 24th day after conditioning, extinction trials of the M. rigida aversion were performed in goats by using single-choice tests. There was no difference between the two treatment groups with respect to the consumption of M. rigida on the first day of aversion conditioning, however, controls ingested increasing amounts of the plant on consecutive conditioning days. On the second day, five out of the seven goats in the lithium group did not eat the leaves, but on the third day, all the goats in the lithium group did not ingest M. rigida. This aversion persisted throughout all evaluated days. This indicates that goats can be easily conditioned by using lithium chloride to avoid eating M. rigida temporarily.

Conditioned food aversion to Ipomoea carnea var. fistulosa induced by Baccharis coridifolia in goats

“…LiCl is effective in inducing a conditioned food aversion to certain plants, such as Cercocarpus montanus (Burritt & Provenza 1989), Delphinium barbeyi (Ralphs 1997) and Amorimia rigida (Barbosa et al 2008). The palatability of a plant can affect the persistence of the aversion.…”

“…Lithium chloride (LiCl) is an aversive agent that has been used to induce aversion to Delphinium barbeyi in cattle (Olsen et al 1989), Cercocarpus montanus and Amelanchier alnifolia in sheep , and Amorimia rigida in goats (Barbosa et al 2008) and sheep (Pacífico da Silva & Soto-Blanco 2010).…”

Intoxicação por Amorimia spp. em ruminantes

“…Em ovinos (PACÍFICO DA SILVA et al, 2010) e caprinos (BARBOSA et al, 2008), foi induzida experimentalmente aversão alimentar condicionada, administrando-se cloreto de lítio após a ingestão de A. rigida, no entanto, não foi estabelecida a duração da aversão nem as possibilidades do emprego dessa técnica em fazendas comerciais para evitar a ingestão de A. rigida. Na Paraíba, foi comprovado que a administração de doses não tóxicas repetidas de folhas de A. septentrionalis induz resistência à intoxicação por essa planta e que essa resistência pode ser transmitida de animais resistentes para animais susceptíveis pela transfaunação de líquido ruminal (DUARTE, 2012).…”

Conditioned food aversion to control poisoning by Ipomoea carnea subsp. fistulosa in goats

“…Conditioned food aversion can be used in ruminants to avoid eating poisonous plants (RALPHS AND OLSEN, 1990;PFISTER et al, 2002;ALMEIDA et al, 2009;PIMENTEL et al, 2012). In Brazil, lithium chloride (LiCl) has been used to induce aversion to consumption of Amorimia rigida (BARBOSA et al, 2008;PACIFICO DA SILVA & SOTO-BLANCO, 2010), Leucaena leucocephala (GORNIAK et al, 2008) Turbina cordata and I. carnea (PIMENTEL et al, 2012). This aversion may persist for up to three years, but can extinguish quickly if averted animals graze in the same area with non-averted animals that ingest the plant (RALPHS, 1997).…”