Behavioral Research Blog - Stress

In this blog we delve into the use of flies as a new perspective for behavioral testing. How do they compare to rodents? And can conventional rodent tests be adapted to insects?

I had a chat with my old department at the University of Groningen to see what they are currently working on. Read more about their reseach into early life stress!

Does housing mice on their own affect animal welfare and reduce experimental validity? How was EthoVision XT video tracking software used to automate this investigation?

The advantages of using multimodal data over a single modality are that it reveals deeper insights and also if one modality fails there can be enough redundancy in the data to still make sense of it.

Today, Deepika Patel kindly shares her research on social structures with us. She investigated rat behavior in detail, using several test paradigms.

The early life environment of male bank voles can influence their offspring significantly. Both social stress and nutrient supply have an effect on the chances of survival for two generations.

When environmental temperatures rise, livestock animals, such as dairy cows, are vulnerable to heat stress. Researchers Polsky and von Keyserlingk reviewed how heat stress affects animal productivity, health, and welfare.

Adolescents are vulnerable to risk-taking behaviors such as substance use. Dr. Roy Otten and his team examined how early childhood stress and inhibitory control influence the risk of adolescent substance use.

The importance of good nutrition for human babies is well known. But what about young animals?

The abolition of battery farming has improved chicken welfare, but there are still problems like feather pecking. In the ChickenStress project, we will try to understand better how to reduce stress and improve welfare.