Abstract

BELLO, Alessandra Cristina Dal; RIUL, Tania Regina  and  DE OLIVEIRA, Luiz Marcellino. Malnutrition and stress during gestation: mother and pups behavioral measures during lactation. Temas psicol. [online]. 2005, vol.13, n.1, pp. 34-44. ISSN 1413-389X.

Malnutrition and stress persist as social problems, leading to physiological and behavioral changes. This work aims to analyze the consequences of stress and malnutrition on mother-pup interaction in rats. The stress and the malnutrition started during the gestation (day 13^th), but malnutrition was prolonged until the end of the lactation. Four groups were analyzed: CS (control without stress), CE (stressed control), DS (malnourished without stress) e DE (stressed and malnourished). The litters were filmed in their home cages in order to analyze the following behavioral categories: visit to the feeding tunnel, resting position, separated litter and passive or active suckling . Malnourished pups spent more time suckling and their mothers were observed in the nest feeding the pups, more frequently than controls. The malnourished pups stayed together in the nesting area whereas control pups explored more outside of the nest. However, the stress didn’t produce significant behavioral changes. These behavioral changes are appropriated to maximizing the conditions for the survival of the malnourished pups.

Keywords : Protein restriction; Stress; Malnutrition; Mother-pups interactions in rats.

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