Feeding behavior during sialodacryoadenitis viral infection in rats

Sialodacryoadenitis (SDA) is a highly contagious common viral infection in rats, akin to mumps in humans. Anorexia occurs during such viral infection. But the pattern of the decrease in food intake (a decrease in either meal size and meal number or both) during spontaneous viral infection has not been previously characterized. We observed the onset of anorexia and an abnormal feeding pattern during an opportunistic SDA viral infection in our rat colony. We thus studied seven male rats. Before the viral infection there was a positive association between food intake and meal number (P<.05). After infection food intake decreased by 68%. This occurred via a significant decrease in meal size (by 69%) (P<.05); and a nonsignificant decrease in meal number (P=.71). This pattern of decreased food intake is similar to that occurring during indomethacin-induced ulcerative ileitis, where we previously measured an increase in plasma tumor-necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. Anorexia in response to bacterial lipopolysaccharide administration, which is also linked to plasma TNF-alpha, is however, caused only via a decrease in meal number. The differences in the decrease in the feeding pattern between the SDA viral and a bacterial infection suggest that factors other than TNF-alpha alone play a significant role in the mechanism of anorexia during a viral infection.