New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

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Bait shyness and its prevention in the rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus L.

CHRISTOPHER D. DEVINE

Animal Stress and Welfare Group
MIRINZ Food Technology & Research Ltd.
P.O. Box 617
Hamilton, New Zealand

CHRISTIAN J. COOK^*

Technology Development Group
Horticulture & Food Research Institute of New Zealand Ltd
Private Bag 3123
Hamilton, New Zealand
e-mail: ccook@hort.cri.nz

^*Author for correspondence

Abstract  Caged New Zealand white rabbits were examined for the development, and prevention, of a learned aversion to toxic feed. Two familiar feeds were offered. One feed, a paste, contained sublethal amounts of sodium monofluoroacetate (1080); the other feed, cereal-based pellets, was unpoisoned. On initial poisoning, consumption of both feeds decreased, but more markedly for the 1080-dosed pastes. Suppressed feed consumption was observed for several days and may have been illness induced. A second poisoning elicited a significant depression of consumption of pastes but not pellets. The addition of a mixture of certain drugs (neurotransmitter antagonists) to the poisoned paste appeared to prevent the characteristic depression of this paste intake. We speculate that the drugs disrupted the associative process linking 1080 to recognisable attributes of the toxin or bait itself.

The implications of these results on aversion formation in rabbits and pest control are discussed.

Keywords  rabbits; 1080; conditioned aversion; neurotransmitters; bait additives

Z97041
Received 12 November 1997; accepted 12 March 1998

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (597K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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