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).

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