Our recent post about the Flehman response in cats led me to further investigate the pheromone topic. Googling produced several references on semiochemicals and their use in insect control. Most important was information provided by AHD sponsor, Ceva Animal Health, which helps clarify some of the confusion about pheromones and pheromone products:
- Pheromones are naturally occurring semiochemicals that humans errantly typify as smells or odors.
- Pheromones evolved as a signal between an organism of the same species or different species to elicit a particular biochemical reaction from the receiver.
- Pheromone effects are genetically predetermined, species-specific, physiological responses.
- By tapping innate responses, animal behaviorists are learning to use pheromones to reduce unwanted behaviors caused by stress.
- Ceva’s pheromone products’ websites: Cats – a) Feliway for cats; Dogs – b) Adaptil® for dogs and puppies
Source: The science of semiochemicals and its applications to veterinary medicine, Ceva Animal Health.
Positive or negative responses to smells are olfactory responses, learned by experiences. Pheromones, by contrast, are “hard-wired, innate.” Smell responses require experience and learning while semiochemicals are innate. The two are even processed differently.
“Semiochemicals, as opposed to olfactory cues, are perceived primarily through the vomeronasal organ or VNO (more commonly, the Jacobson’s organ),” writes Valarie V. Tynes, DVM, DACVB. “The inside of the VNO is lined with sensory epithelium that react to a semiochemical by signaling the amygdala, the area of the brain primarily responsible for emotions such as fear, anxiety and well-being.”
Also see: Semiochemicals help create well adapted puppies, Ceva Animal Health.
Use of synthetic copies of naturally occurring semiochemicals, such as appeasing pheromones can help create a positive emotional state in puppies coming into a new home or beginning socialization classes. Appeasing pheromones are produced by nursing females from sebaceous glands located in the intramammary sulcus and have a calming or soothing effect on the young. Dogs continue to be soothed by this pheromone throughout their lives.
INSIGHTS: I believe semiochemical science is important for all animal health pros. As we seek to be better animal stewards, pheromone science will certainly provide options to reduce the negative effects of emotional responses in our animals. To summarize:
- Humans may smell puppy breath or cat paw odors, but we do not process them as chemical communication.
- Pheromones are semiochemicals which biochemically signal innate responses
- Smells create olfactory responses that are learned by experiences
- Lip curling or stinky faces indicate a Flehman response that helps engage the vomeronasal organ, or VNO, sensory epithelium
- Today we can manufacture synthetic semiochemicals that mimic the benefits of naturally occurring pheromones