Responses to sweetener-quinine mixtures in chicks: Short-term fluid intake test

Abstract

To study behavioral responses to sweet taste stimuli in young chickens, White leghorn chicks were given mixed-solutions of quinine and saccharin or glycine for 10 minutes after being deprived of water for 6 h. The consumption of quinine alone solution was significantly lower than water control (p<0.05), whereas saccharin (1.0 mM) or glycine (0.5 M) produced a recovery from taste aversion of quinine to approximately 82-83% of baseline (control) level. Our results suggest that chicks seem to sense sweetness and this short term test may be a useful tool to evaluate taste sense for chicks. © GSP, India.