Assessment of taste disorders in rats by simultaneous study of the two-bottle preference test and abnormal ingestive behavior.

Taste disorders were produced in rats by the administration of a zinc-deficient diet and assessed by two methods, i.e., observations of the subjects' behavior in terms of the two-bottle preference test and of their ingestive behavior in terms of taste differentiation. The findings of the two tests were compared, revealing a high degree of agreement. The results indicate that reliable data can be obtained from the two-bottle preference test, an examination procedure extensively applied to the study of taste disorders, as well as from observation of the rats' ingestive behavior. Thus, both methods can be used in parallel for assessing or confirming taste disorders in rats.