Potential compounds for inducing conditioned taste aversion in ferrets

Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) develops when an animal associates the taste of a particular food with illness and subsequently avoids consuming that food. We evaluated the potential of two compounds, levamisole hydrochloride and antimony potassium tartrate (APT) to induce CTA to meat in captive ferrets (Mustela furo). On conditioning day, one group of ferrets was presented with meat treated with a compound and another group of ferrets was presented with untreated meat. In post-conditioning tests we established whether ferrets had acquired an aversion to untreated meat. Ferrets could detect levamisole and formed an aversion to this compound. APT induced an aversion to meat in treated ferrets, which ate less meat than controls. We suggest that APT is a promising agent to induce CTA in ferrets, while levamisole can act as a feeding repellent. The ability of levamisole to induce CTA should be tested once the flavour of this compound is masked.