Effects of the removal of olfactory bulbs on the appearance and then on the latency of the "mouse-killing reaction" in the rat of the Wistar SM strain.
The 20% of male 5-6 month-old Wistar rats SM prove to be natural killers. A four-month long insulation of "surely non-killer" rats has not allowed to notice a mouse-killing behaviour in any animal. The total bilateral removal of olfactory bulbs in "non-killer rats" causes a "mouse-killing behaviour" in all the animal 24 hours after the operation, but with a latency of response that has proved different in the various rats. Precisely, while 24 hours and 15 days after the bulb operation the rats can be distinguished into "rapid killers" and "slow killers", after 30 days all the animals become "rapid killers" with a remarkably shortened period of mouse-killing latency (1 - 60 seconds).
D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009830:Olfactory Bulb / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D012934:Social Isolation; D013997:Time Factors