Organoleptic properties plays a vital role in enhancing the feed intake and improve the production efficiency in animals.

1. Effect of organoleptic properties
of feed and fodder on feed
intake in animal
Dipak Dey (Ph.D. Scholar)
Bharti Sharma (Ph.D. Scholar)
Email – dipakchandan63@gmail.com

2. INTRODUCTION

3. Since the 50's the feeding behavior of ruminants fed
indoors or at pasture has been extensively studied
(Jarrige et al., 1995)
Free-grazing livestock use all of their senses to evaluate
abiotic and biotic factors when selecting feeding sites
(Howery et al., 2000)
Ruminants eat that amount of food which leaves them
with the most comfortable feelings
(Forbes, 1995)

4. Food choice is determined by a complex of factors that
include food sensory characteristics as well as positive
or negative post-ingestive feedback
(Provenza, 1995)
What is palatability?
Palatability is the interrelationship between a food's
flavor and post-ingestive feedback from nutrients and
toxins in the food. Palatability is further influenced by an
animal’s current nutritional state and its experiences with
the food.
(Burritt and Provenza, 2002)

5. Common methods of measuring food liking include the nine
point hedonic scale where, for example 1 = dislike very much
and 9 = like very much
Hedonics, was coined as a term by Beebe-Center in 1932 to
rate the pleasantness and unpleasantness of solutions
representing the taste qualities of saltiness and sweetness
In relation to evaluating eating and drinking experiences,
hedonics often referred to as simply ‘liking’. Liking is the
immediate experience or anticipation of pleasure from the oro-
sensory stimulation of eating a food
(Mela et al., 2006)
Hedonic value

6. Information integrated by the animal to evaluate food’s
palatability
Choice opportunities
Animals can rely on two types of available information to
evaluate foods
(i) Pre-ingestive
information
(ii) Post-ingestive
information
Food sensory
characteristics perceived
by the animal before
swallowing the food
Digestive and metabolic
consequences felt by the
animal after swallowing

7. Organoleptic properties are the aspects of food, water or other
substances that an individual experiences via the senses —
Organoleptic: Relating to perception by a sensory organ
(Chauhan and Sharma, 2003)
4.taste
1.sight
2.smell
3.Touch
Pre-ingestive
information
Post-ingestive
information

8. (Berthoud, 2002)

9. SIGHT

10. Schematic overview of visual pathway

11. Recent experiments have shown that ruminants are
dichromatic, and are most sensitive to yellowish–green (552–
555 nm) and bluish–purple light (444– 445 nm)
(Phillips and Lomas, 2001)
Sight is generally considered to be the least used sense,
because ruminants were long thought to be color blind
(Bazely,1990)
Visual cues helped large ungulates select preferred forages
and feeding areas
(Howery et al., 2000)

12. Sight and smell are supposed to help animals in making a first
sensory evaluation of food without any direct contact
(Peigne´ et al., 2013)
Cattle have an acute sense of vision particularly in terms of
color perception
(Piggins, 1992)

13. Water dispenser colour
Red Green Blue P-value
Number of
visits/48 h/pig
11.6 ± 2.9 7.0 ± 2.9 8.7 ± 2.9 NS
Mean visit
duration (sec)
9.8 ± 0.8 10.4 ± 0.8 11.7 ± 0.7 NS
Water
consumption
(g/24 h/pig)
29.8 ± 2.1ᵃ 15.4 ± 2.7ᵇ 35.7 ± 2.7ᵃ P <0.001
Effect of water dispenser colour on visits
characteristics and water consumption in piglet
(Deligeorgis et al., 2006)
Increased attraction of piglets to water dispenser
and less duration stay reduced motivation to
drink water

14. Number of newborn piglets’ visits as affected
by dispenser colour and piglets sex
(Deligeorgis et al., 2006)
Male: open
Female: dotted bars
Sex dimorphic behavioral colour preferences

15. SMELL

16. Animals reject unpalatable pasture as it is assumed that such pasture
give off volatile materials
(Preston and Leng, 1987)
A single receptor recognizes multiple odorants and a single odorant
is recognized by multiple receptors (Malnic et al., 1999)
Livestock use odor generalisation to select nutrients, avoid
phytotoxins, and accept novel foods
(Villalba and Provenza, 2000)

17. Species No. of functional genes (%) No. of pseudogenes
pig 1,113(86) 188
Cattle 881(82) 190
Rat 1,201(80) 292
Dog 872(80) 222
Mouse 1,037(75) 354
Zebrafish 102(74) 35
Human 388(48) 414
frog 410(46) 478
Pufferfish 44(45) 54
chicken 82(15) 476
(Lee et al., 2013)
Number of functional olfactory receptor (OR)
genes among different species

18. Chromosome
no.
No. of
functional
genes
No of
pseudoge
nes
total No of sub
family
7 140 40 180 42
15 251 52 303 100
19 23 4 15 27
23 68 9 12 77
29 56 8 13 64
Total 881 190 18 1071
Composition of olfactory receptor (OR)
genes for each cattle chromosome
(Lee et al., 2013)

19. (Lancet, 1986)
Schematic overview of the sensory
innervation of the nasal mucosa

20. (Tien et al., 1999)
Effect of odor and flavor on intake of an
novel feed (rice bran) in sheep
Rapid acceptance of feed in the presence
of flavor or odor is due to stimulus
generalisation

21. Item Food
1
Food
2
Food
3
total
Feed offered singly Intake, g/d 1,907ᵃ 1,776ᵇ 1,580ᶜ -
DEI, Mcal/d 4.21 4.30 4.23 -
Feed
offered
together
Pre-LiCl (d
1-8)
Intake, g/d 330ᵃ 537ᵇ 936ᶜ 1,803ᵈ
DEI, Mcal/d 0.73 1.30 2.51 4.54
Post-LiCl
(d 10-16)
Intake, g/d 345ᵃ 510ᵇ 843ᶜ 1,698ᵉ
DEI, Mcal/d 0.76 1.23 2.26 4.25
Post-
flavours
(d 19-23)
Intake, g/d 201ᵃ 489ᵇ 1,377ᶜ 2,067ᶠ
DEI, Mcal/d 0.44 1.18 3.70 5.32
Effect of flavor and different level of energy
on feed intake in lambs
(Provenza et al., 2011)
a,b,c means in a row and d,e,f means
in a column differ significantly
Flavours shows masking effect on negative post
ingestive feedback and improve feed intake
Food 2- 1% onion
Food 3- 1% oregano

22. (Provenza et al., 2011)
Effect of different flavor on feed intake in lambs
Food 2- 1% oregano
Food 3- 1% onion

23. Intake of alfalfa
hay fed in its
natural flavor or in
a variety of flavor
(Distel et al., 2007)
Intake of pasture
hay fed in its
natural flavor or in
a variety of flavor
Livestock fed low quality forages with
added flavors stimulate feed intake

24. Initial 1g/kg of feed for 28 days,
followed by maintenance rate at
0.25g/kg of feed

25. Product Description
Citrus-Apple Citrusy fresh with apple overtone particularly for ruminants
Coconut-
Vanilla.Caramel
Fragnant coconut flavor with notes of caramel and vanilla
Equidarom Pungent combination of apple and pears
Garden-mint Aromatic combination of spearmint, peppermint and
additional spices
Gingerbread Combination of aromatic spices that suit current demand
Herb, Spicy Combination of parsley, lovage and other herbs
Multi-fruit, MC Classic “Red Fruit“ notes
Special-MineralS, MC Acacia honey with a spicy note
Stabilan-ZA, MC Pungent combination of apple and cinnamon
Vanilla spice Spice note with fenugreek seeds

26. TOUCH

27. Mechanoreceptors convey information regarding a range of
mechanical sensory events, including touch, pressure, vibration and
proprioception ( Trulsson and Johansson, 2002)
Medical Definition of touch : To bring a bodily part into contact with
especially so as to perceive through the tactile sense
The sense of touch is important in that grazing animals generally
select against rough, harsh or spiny material
(Vallentine, 2001)
Different types of mechanoreceptors innervate a wide range of oral
tissues, including the tongue, the periodontal ligament, the gingiva
and the palate
(Jacobs et al., 2002)

28. Goats can overcome physical defences of certain trees because they
have hard mouth parts that are unaffected by spines and thorns
(Cheeke and Dierenfeld, 2010)
Touch and taste are in use as soon as there is a direct contact
between the lips and mouth of the animal and the plant
(Peigne´ et al., 2013)
Forage characteristics like DM content and particle size, and
resistance to fracture can affect ease of prehension and thus intake
rate
(Inoue´ et al., 1994)

29. (Haggard and Boer, 2014)
Schematic overview of the sensory
innervation of the oral cavity

30. Three levels of somatosensory representation
(Longo et al., 2010)

31. TASTE

32. Taste and smell are often mixed together resulting in a global
stimulation of the oro-pharyngeal area, called flavour
(Peigne´ et al., 2013)
Ruminants quickly learn to associate positive PIF with nutritious
foods, and negative PIF with foods that contain toxins, excessive
nutrients, or inadequate nutrients
(Provenza et al., 2003)
Taste is considered important as it is the last sense that can inform
animals about a food's characteristic before it is swallowed
(Vallentine, 2001)
Taste is the sensation produced when a substance in the mouth
reacts chemically with taste receptor cells located on taste buds in
the oral cavity, mostly on the tongue

33. (Bachmanov and Beauchamp, 2007)
Taste Chemicals/ Nutrients
Sweet taste Indicate the presence of
carbohydrates
Salty taste Signals the presence of
sodium or minerals in
general
Sour taste Signal spoiled food
Bitter taste Associated with the
presence of toxins in food
Umami taste
(amino acid L-glutamate)
Indicate the presence of
proteins

34. Species Number of taste buds
Chicken 24
Pigeon 37
Cat 473
Dog 1,706
Human 9,000
Pig/goat 15,000
Rabbit 17,000
Calf 25,000
(Kare, 1966)
Number of taste buds in different species

35. Gilbertson et al., 2000

36. Item Low protein High protein P-value
Umami Mixture umami mixture CPL FT CPL x
FT
Total intake,
( g/d)
1127 922 1271 1437 0.01 0.87 0.10
Intake of
flavoured
feed, g/d
740.2ᵃ 285.7ᵇ 501.1ᵃ 515.4ᵃ 0.63 0.28 0.01
Intake % of
total
consumption
65.6ᵃ 30.6ᵇ 39.4ᵇ 42.6ᵇ 0.09 0.004 <0.001
Feed
efficiency %
6.4 4.4 10.5 11.4 0.01 0.65 0.36
Feed intake of lambs as affected by CP level
and flavor of the diet
(Bach et al., 2012)CPL: CP level effect; FT: fiavor type effect;
ᵃ,ᵇ Different superscripts within a row differ at P < 0.05
Mixture: Umami+Sweet+Bitter
Umami flavor improve intake of low quality feed

37. Taste Compound Behavioral response with
increasing dose
Reference
salty NaCl Weak to strong reject (Goatcher et
al.,1970)
NaCl Reject (Stubbs, 1958)
Sweet sucrose Strong pref. to weak reject (Goatcher et
al.,1970)
glucose Weak to moderate pref. (Hellekant et al.,
1994)
Fructose,lacto
se, galactose
Weak to strong pref. (Hellekant et al.,
1994)
Bitter Quinine Weak to strong reject (Church et al.,1970)
Umami MSG Moderate pref. (Waldern and Van
Dyk, 1971)
MSG Increase in intake at start
(+50%)
(Waldern and Van
Dyk, 1971)
Sour Acetic acid Moderate pref. to strong reject (Marten,1988)
Hydrochloric
acid
Reject (Stubbs and Kare,
1958)

38. (Rolls, 2015)
Schematic diagram showing gustatory, olfactory, visual and
somatosensory pathways

39. ConclusIONs

40.  Food choice is determined by complex factors that include
previous experiences, food sensory characteristics, post-
ingestive feedback and physiological condition of animal
Animal can discriminate between different colours and shows
selective feeding
Familiar flavor or odor incorporation in diet increase
acceptance of novel feed
Additional flavor in diet show masking effect on unpleasant or
toxic compound and increase intake of low quality feed
Physical form of feed material influence intake by stimulating
tactile sense
All senses interact together to evaluate food