A look back at one of the classic studies about prevention of coprophagy in the rat:
“Prevention of coprophagy in the rat,” Richard H. Barnes, Grace Fiala, Bette McGehee, and Ann Brown, Journal of Nutrition, vol. 63, no. 4 (1957): 489-498. The authors, at Cornell University, begin with the now-familiar words:
“The contributions of coprophagy in rats as a means of making available the nutrients that are synthesized in the lower intestine has remained one of the major nutritional mysteries of our time…
Here’s detail from the study:
