Importance of preference for environmental items for rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss

• Grant number: 12/24433-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: August 05, 2013
• End date: August 04, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Animal Behavior
• Principal Investigator: Gilson Luiz Volpato
• Grantee: Caroline Marques Maia
• Supervisor: Victoria Anne Braithwaite
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IBB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Pennsylvania State University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/06104-0 - Give the animals what they want: validation of a preference index by effort tests, BP.DR

Abstract

Preference tests have been used in the literature to identify conditions of welfare for the animals. However, generally, preferences have been inferred from momentary choices. We recently demonstrated (Maia, 2012) that momentary choices are different from preferences (preferences = choices that are consistent over time). In this context, the next step is whether preferred conditions cause internal and behavioral states of greater comfort than those which are simply choices for the animal, thus representing a most significant reinforcement. Our prediction is that fish should strive more to get your preferred conditions than to get those identified as only sporadic choice. Here we will investigate the fish rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in order to compare the data that will be obtained with those that will be obtained for the Nile-tilapia (PhD project, FAPESP, process number: 2012/06104-0) thus covering two of the worldwide main aquaculture species. Therefore, we will evaluate the choices of the trout in multiple choice test, with 5 options available, for 10 consecutive days. We will determine the choices and preferences of each individual in relation to conditions of environmental color, refuges and presence of conspecifics in the environment. Then, we will apply two types of motivation test: one in which the animal will strive physically to access the resource (preferred or chosen item) and another in which the animal must go through a path with aversive stimuli to access the resource (preferred or chosen item). We predict a minimum of 10 replicates for each condition of test. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MAIA, C. M.; FERGUSON, B.; VOLPATO, G. L.; BRAITHWAITE, V. A.. Physical and psychological motivation tests of individual preferences in rainbow trout. JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY, v. 302, n. 2, p. 108-118, JUN 2017. (12/24433-0)