Effects of the long-term anosmia combined with vision deprivation on the taste sensitivity and feeding behavior of the rainbow trout Parasalmo (=Oncorhynchus) mykiss

Abstract

We compared taste preferences, taste sensitivity, and behavior in testing food objects in the group of intact and two groups of sensory deprived rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss yearlings. We demonstrated that long term anosmia (for 9 months), as well as anosmia (for 9 months) combined with enucleation (object vision deprivation for 4 months), does not change the taste preference of fish for the agar pellets containing amino acids (L alanine, L proline, L histidine, or glycine; 0.1 M). For all groups of fish, the threshold L alanine concentration in pellets that caused a significant increase in consumption is 0.01 M. We showed that sensory deprived fish change their behavior of gustatory testing, namely, the rate of repeated snaps decreases as well as the pellet retention time in the mouth cavity. These results demonstrate that long term anosmia combined with a partial vision deprivation does not significantly change the taste preferences and sensitivity in the fish that have no external taste buds. However, the observed reduction in the testing time of food objects and other changes in fish feeding behavior may suggest some functional alterations in the intraoral sensory systems (gustatory and/or tactile).

The taste system in fishes and the effects of environmental variables

“…The fish originally fed the carnivorous diet showed a palatability 1.27 and 1.07 times greater for pellets flavoured with chironomids ( P < 0.001 for both) and fish originally fed the herbivorous diet showed a palatability of 1.22 ( P < 0.01) and 0.99 ( P > 0.05) times greater for pellets flavoured with duck weed and lettuce, in a series of two behavioural trials (Kasumyan & Morsi, ). The differences were not related to the smell of pellets because the response of fish to flavoured pellets is not mediated by olfaction (Kasumyan & Sidorov, ).…”

“…The evidence suggests that the extraoral taste system plays a main, if not the leading, role in such sensory plasticity. It was shown that this phenomenon is a common feature for fishes that possess extraoral taste buds normally, such as in the acipenserids and cyprinids, but was not found in fishes in which TB location is restricted to the oral cavity only, such as in salmonids, cichlids and characids (Kasumyan & Marusov, , ; Kasumyan & Sidorov, ; Marusov & Kasumyan, , ). Chronic anosmia leads to functional shifts in the external taste system, increases the external TB number and affects morphology and distribution, while no similar changes have been found for the intraoral taste buds (Devitsina & Marusov, ; Kasumyan, ).…”

Taste preferences and feeding behavior of three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus of populations of basins of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

“…However, there are interspecies differences in manifestation of stereotypes. For instance, three spined stickleback performs more cycles of graspretention-rejection at manifestation of food con sumption stereotype, which makes it closer to stone loach, but distinguishes it from common carp, rain bow trout, and roach (Kasumyan and Sidorov, 2010a, 2010b, 2012Kasumyan and Tin'kova, 2013). A small number of studied species does not allow us to formu late now any common interrelations between manifes tation of stereotypes and ecology of fish, their feeding mode, and other specific biological features.…”

“…It is suggested that selection of pattern according to which behavior will develop occurs in fish early-already at the first moments of the object's contact with intraoral recep tors (Kasumyan and Sidorov, 2010). Stereotypes can differ in different fish, but there is one peculiarity common for all still scarce studies of species: time spent on realization of the food consumption stereo type is several times greater than time spent on mani festation of food rejection stereotype (Kasumyan and Sidorov, 2010a, 2010b, 2012Kasumyan and Tin'kova, 2013). It is possibly related to a more strict sensory control of food before swallowing.…”

Attractability and palatability of liquid protein hydrolysates for Nile tilapia juveniles

“…Amino acids represent chemical signals in the gustatory system of fish, which are classified as inciting or stimulant and may differentiate the attractiveness of a feed. Among them, there can be highlighted: cysteine, betaine, glutamic acid, serine, glycine, alanine, proline, methionine, cysteine, phenylalanine, arginine, tyrosine, valine, leucine and glutamine (Kasumyan & Morsi, 1996;Kasumyan, 1997;Kasumyan & Doving, 2003;Hara, 2011;Suresh, Vasagam, & Nates, 2011;Kasumyan & Sidorov, 2012;Lokkeborg et al, 2014;Siikavuopio, James, Stenberg, Evensen, & Saether, 2017;Alves, Silva, et al, 2019;.…”