Behavioral teratology of alcoholic beverages compared to ethanol.

Pregnant rats were intubated with beer, wine, whiskey, or ethanol (3 g/kg/day), twice daily, while control animals received an isocaloric solution. All animals were pair-fed to ethanol-treated animals. At birth, offspring were fostered to surrogate nondrug-treated dams. Congeners present in beverage alcohol did not exacerbate the effects of ethanol exposure. Ethanol-treated animals were less responsive than controls to a challenge dose of ethanol. Beer- and whiskey-treated animals were also less responsive than controls to ethanol challenge, but did not differ from ethanol-treated animals. Group differeces in Rotarod behavior, ambulation, rearing, or defecation in the activity box, activity wheel running, spontaneous alternation, and brain DNA, RNA, and protein content were not significant. Although beer-treated males performed better on the Rotarod than controls, beer-treated males did not differ significantly from controls on any other task.