Validation of a combined approach-avoidance and conditioned stimulus aversion paradigm for evaluating aversion in chickens.

ABSTRACT: Understanding animals' aversion is important to improving their welfare. Aversion is often assessed using an approach-avoidance (AA) test in which animals have to forfeit a reward if they want to avoid an event or environment presented in the same place. However, sometimes the event/environment suspected to be aversive may physically impair the animal's ability to withdraw from that place (i.e. its ability to express aversion), leading to incorrect interpretations. Combining AA with a Conditioned-Stimulus that predicts the event/environment may overcome this problem by allowing animals to demonstrate aversion without exposure to the stimulus. We aimed to validate this paradigm for testing aversion in chickens. Seven Hyline-Brown chickens were trained to obtain a food reward from a coloured

SUBMITTER: du Plessis EW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7906348 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature