Meeting Abstract
Many studies have demonstrated that when newly hatched chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) chicks are exposed to odors, they later show preferences for food or locations that are appropriately scented. Scents, however, also readily cross the eggshell, and thus it has been demonstrated that exposure to a scent in ovo also causes altered food consumption in exposed chicks after hatch. And yet, we do not know if this embryological exposure causes the chicks to be more sensitive to the scent. Here we exposed a group of chicken eggs to an orange scent in the days prior to hatch and tested these, and unexposed, one day old chicks to a dilution series of orange scents. We found that orange-exposed chicks responded to the orange scent at lower concentrations than the unexposed chicks. This suggests that embryonic exposure to an odor either alters the makeup of the olfactory epithelium or the conditions of the olfactory bulb or both. This increased sensitivity towards smells experienced in the egg may allow precocious chicks to more easily find food. We also found that orange-exposed chicks responded more strongly to another fruity scent (raspberry) than non-exposed chicks. These results are also discussed.
