Do listers think the following might indicate anything about
human nursing and weaning patterns? (From New Scientist, 20
March 1999)

Love Liza

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[log in to unmask] (Liza May)

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"Suckling pigs acquire a taste for cordon bleu"

              A FONDNESS FOR garlic could ease
              livestock through the trauma of weaning, say
              researchers in Britain.

              Pig farmers often stop piglets from suckling
as
              early as three weeks after they have been
              born so that their mother can produce another
              litter. But it can be up to a week before some
              of the piglets learn to eat solid food. This
is
              unacceptable on welfare grounds, argues Jon
              Day of the ADAS Terrington Research Centre
              near King's Lynn, Norfolk. "And it's also bad
              for farm productivity."

              Day believes piglets will switch more readily
to
              solids if both milk and the feed have the same
              strong flavour. He has already tested this
idea
              with rats. Working with Emmeline Randall and
              Richard Sibly of the University of Reading,
Day
              added garlic or cumin to the food of pregnant
              rats. Control females received normal food.
              After allowing the pups to suckle for three
              weeks, they were offered two pots of food,
              one flavoured with cumin, the other with
garlic.

              On the first day of weaning, 60 per cent of
the
              food eaten by the rats fed on the
              garlic-flavoured milk was from the garlicky
              pot. The rats also spent 80 per cent of the
              first day in physical contact with the
container
              of garlic-flavoured food, suggesting that they
              were strongly drawn to it. "The battle is to
get
              them to stick their noses in the trough and
take
              a bite," says Day, who will present his
results
              next week in Scarborough at the annual
              meeting of the British Society of Animal
              Science.

              Rats fed on cumin-flavoured milk ate equal
              amounts of both foods on the first day, which
              suggests that they were not as strongly
              conditioned as the garlic-eaters. But they did
              spend 60 per cent of their time on the first
              day in contact with the cumin-flavoured pot.

              Day is now seeking funding to test the garlic
              treatment on piglets down on the farm.