The responsiveness of young rabbits to the mammary pheromone: developmental course in domestic and wild pups

Coureaud, Gérard; Rödel, Heiko G.; Kurz, Christfried A.; Schaal, Benoı̂st

doi:10.1007/s00049-007-0392-x

Cited by 21 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…This confirms that the MP on its own plays a major role during nursing. It not only triggers nipple-search behaviour (Coureaud et al, 2007;Coureaud, R€ odel, et al, 2008;Schaal et al, 2003) but also favours the acquisition of novel odours as cues improving future sucking performance.…”

Section: Effect Of Mp-versus Nursing-induced Odour Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its efficacy in releasing searchingegrasping responses in pups is general to O. cuniculus, although it changes during the lactation period. Indeed, both domestic and wild rabbit pups respond to the MP, with the response rates highest during the first 10 postnatal days, progressively decreasing thereafter and completely vanishing at weaning (Coureaud, R€ odel, Kurz, & Schaal, 2008). Some pups (<10%), however, are unresponsive on postnatal day 1, which leads to deficient milk intake and high mortality before weaning (especially in low birth weight individuals; Coureaud, Fortun-Lamothe, Langlois, & Schaal, 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Mammary pheromone-induced odour learning influences sucking behaviour and milk intake in the newborn rabbit

2016

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Newborn rabbits, Oryctolagus cuniculus, locate their mother's nipples through typical orocephalic movements elicited by odour stimuli, in particular by the mammary pheromone (MP). The MP also promotes neonatal odour learning: after single pairing with the MP, an initially neutral odorant becomes able to elicit sucking-related head-searching/oral-grasping movements. However, the behavioural significance of the MP-induced odour learning remains poorly understood. We carried out three experiments to explore its influence on milk intake and compare its consequences with those resulting from nursing-induced conditioning. First, pups conditioned to an odorant by pairing with the MP on postnatal days 2-3 were shown to gain more milk on day 4 during nursing by a female carrying the conditioned odorant along the nipple lines. Second, surprisingly, nursing-induced odour learning failed to induce this effect. We therefore determined whether the location of the conditioned odorant on or around the nipples modified the pups' milk intake: it appeared that after nursing-induced conditioning, the pups gained more milk when the conditioned odorant was applied directly on the nipples. Moreover, several results showed that pups could learn different odorants during successive days of conditioning, and that the more recently acquired cue was the most influential on milk intake. This study suggests that the MP plays a critical role to ensure sucking performance in newborn rabbits, not only through its releasing effect, but also through its ability to promote the acquisition of novel odours carried by the mother. (C) 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour

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Section: Effect Of Mp-versus Nursing-induced Odour Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Mammary pheromone-induced odour learning influences sucking behaviour and milk intake in the newborn rabbit

2016

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“…at an optimal age of pup orocephalic responsiveness to the MP, before progressive decrease and extinction between postnatal days 10–15 and weaning (Coureaud et al. , ). In addition, while food anticipatory behavioural rhythmicity develops in rabbit pups over the first 4 days after birth (Hudson & Distel, ; Jilge, ; Montigny et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In rabbit pups, such an exploration has been conducted on postnatal days 0 (day of birth; Schneider et al 2016b) and 4 (Charra et al 2012), i.e. at an optimal age of pup orocephalic responsiveness to the MP, before progressive decrease and extinction between postnatal days 10-15 and weaning (Coureaud et al 2006a(Coureaud et al , 2008a. In addition, while food anticipatory behavioural rhythmicity develops in rabbit pups over the first 4 days after birth (Hudson & Distel, 1982;Jilge, 1993;Montigny et al 2006), it has been shown that the MP may be one of the non-photic cues arising from the mother, stimulating synchronisation of the circadian system during pre-visual developmental stages (eyes open between days 10 and 13) (Caba & Gonz alez-Mariscal, 2009;Mont ufar-Chaveznava et al 2013;Trejo-Muñoz et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain anatomy of the 4‐day‐old European rabbit

2018

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The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a widely used model in fundamental, medical and veterinary neurosciences. Besides investigations in adults, rabbit pups are relevant to study perinatal neurodevelopment and early behaviour. To date, the rabbit is also the only species in which a pheromone - the mammary pheromone (MP) - emitted by lactating females and active on neonatal adaptation has been described. The MP is crucial since it contributes directly to nipple localisation and oral seizing in neonates, i.e. to their sucking success. It may also be one of the non-photic cues arising from the mother, which stimulates synchronisation of the circadian system during pre-visual developmental stages. Finally, the MP promotes neonatal odour associative and appetitive conditioning in a remarkably rapid and efficient way. For these different reasons, the rabbit offers a currently unique opportunity to determine pheromonal-induced brain processing supporting adaptation early in life. Therefore, it is of interest to create a reference work of the newborn rabbit pup brain, which may constitute a tool for future multi-disciplinary and multi-approach research in this model, and allow comparisons related to the neuroethological basis of social and feeding behaviour among newborns of various species. Here, in line with existing experimental studies, and based on original observations, we propose a functional anatomical description of brain sections in 4-day-old rabbits with a particular focus on seven brain regions which appear important for neonatal perception of sensory signals emitted by the mother, circadian adaptation to the short and single daily nursing of the mother in the nest, and expression of specific motor actions involved in nipple localisation and milk intake. These brain regions involve olfactory circuits, limbic-related areas important in reward, motivation, learning and memory formation, homeostatic areas engaged in food anticipation, and regions implicated in circadian rhythm and arousal, as well as in motricity.

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“…Such an agedependent response could be clearly shown in studies using the mammary pheromone, where the responses of domestic and wild rabbits to the experimental presentation to this component of maternal odour cues strongly declined in older pups before weaning (Coureaud et al , 2008b. However, the effectiveness of the communication by odour cues does not only depend on the responsiveness of the receiver but also on the quality of the signal provided by the sender (Wyatt 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Abdominal odours of young, low-ranking European rabbit mothers are less attractive to pups: an experiment with animals living under natural breeding conditions

Rödel

Coureaud

Monclús

et al. 2008

J Ethol

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Lactating rabbit females (Oryctolagus cuniculus) emit abdominal, ventral odour cues that are involved in guiding the pups to the nipples. We tested the impact of the females' social rank and age on the emission of this odour signal; both factors are highly collinear in wild rabbits and we did not aim to disentangle them in our study. We predicted that the abdominal odours of young, low-ranking females, which are usually more stressed and have a comparatively lower body condition, should be less attractive to pups than those of older, high-ranking females. For the experiment, we caught females from a population of wild-type European rabbits living in a large field enclosure. Pairs of adult females were placed in boxes with wire-mesh floor fixed over an arena with three rabbit pups aged 4-7 days old. First, we evaluated the effectiveness of our two-choice design by testing lactating females (LF) against non-lactating (NLF) controls (n = 17 pairs). In accordance with recent studies, the pups showed a clear preference for lactating females by means of a higher exploration time and more local searching under the ventral region of these females. In a second experiment, the pups chose between lactating 1-year-old, low-ranking females (Y/LRF) and older, high-ranking females (O/HRF) (n = 10 pairs). These latter assays suggested a comparatively lower attractiveness of Y/LRF females to pups searching for milk. Although the pups showed no significant preference in exploration behaviour, they preferably directed local searching events to the abdominal region of O/HRF females. In conclusion, our study suggests that motheroffspring chemosensory communication is modified by the mother's age and social rank, i.e., by a complex of factors that are strongly linked in rabbit females in the wild.

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The responsiveness of young rabbits to the mammary pheromone: developmental course in domestic and wild pups

Cited by 21 publications

References 37 publications

Mammary pheromone-induced odour learning influences sucking behaviour and milk intake in the newborn rabbit

Mammary pheromone-induced odour learning influences sucking behaviour and milk intake in the newborn rabbit

Brain anatomy of the 4‐day‐old European rabbit

Abdominal odours of young, low-ranking European rabbit mothers are less attractive to pups: an experiment with animals living under natural breeding conditions

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