Tang, H.; Ge, W.-W.; Wei, W.-H.; Yang, S.-M.; Dai, X. Food Grinding Behavior: A Review of Causality and Influential Factors. Preprints2024, 2024050894. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.0894.v1
APA Style
Tang, H., Ge, W. W., Wei, W. H., Yang, S. M., & Dai, X. (2024). Food Grinding Behavior: A Review of Causality and Influential Factors. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.0894.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Tang, H., Sheng-Mei Yang and Xin Dai. 2024 "Food Grinding Behavior: A Review of Causality and Influential Factors" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.0894.v1
Abstract
Food waste is a common issue arising from grinding of food by experimental animals, leading to excessive food scraps falling into cages. In the wild, animals grind food by gnawing vegetation and seeds, potentially damaging the ecological environment. However, limited ecology studies have focused on food grinding behavior since the last century, with even fewer on rodent food grinding, particularly recently. Although food grinding function is partially understood, biological purposes remain under-investigated and driving factors unclear. This review aims to explain potential causes of animal food grinding, identify influencing factors, and discuss contexts and limitations. Specifically, we emphasize recent progress on gut microbiota significance for food grinding. Moreover, we show abnormal food grinding is determined by degree of excess normal behavior, emphasizing food grinding is not meaningless. Findings from this review promote comprehensive research on the myriad factors, multifaceted roles, and intricate evolution underlying food grinding behavior, benefiting laboratory animal husbandry and ecological environment protection, and identifying potential physiological benefits yet undiscovered.
Biology and Life Sciences, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
