103, 195) that mimic the human condition. These deficits were observed in neonate (101, 102, 196, 198), adolescent (197, 198), and adult (102, 103, 197, 198) animals. There has been only one study where ethanol administration has been restricted to the third trimester equivalent (classified as GD 43–62) (99) and surprisingly, hippocampal synaptic plasticity and spatial learning were not significantly affected in adult animals even with BACs of 245 mg/dl (99). Recently, studies utilizing the guinea pig model have been exploring the idea of biomarkers for FASD. Specifically, the accumulation of fatty acid ethyl esters, which form during non-oxidative metabolism of ethanol, in the hair may be a useful indicator of PNEE (199). The advantage of using the guinea pig model for this research is that guinea pigs are the only rodent species that are born with neonatal hair. This line of research may result in the guinea pig model being more widely used in the FASD field. A drawback in using guinea pigs is that the litter size is much smaller than in rats/mice and the longer gestation period can increase the time and costs of a project. Furthermore, guinea pigs may be more difficult to use for behavioral
