HET301 The Biology of Animal Stress and Its Implications for Animal Welfare

In the first part of the course, lectures are held on stress and stress axes, neural, physiological and behavioural responses to stress, including effects of pain and perinatal stress. After the first weeks, the colloquium work begins. The teacher is present, but the students themselves introduce the discussion. The colloquia are, to a large extent, based on the textbook and other relevant literature.

After completing the course, students should have competence on stress and the mastering of stress and what relevance chronic or temporary stress has on the welfare of animals. Students should be able to describe and explain the relationship between stress and animal welfare, the brain"s regulation of the stress response, the neural endocrine regulation of the stress responses, the behavioural responses to short-term and long-term stress, stress and mastering strategies, fear and stress, the effects of chronic stress, pain and stress, the behavioural and physiological changes that occur as a result of stress acting upon foetuses and young animals as well as the effects of genetic selection as they relate to the mastering of stress.