ECTS credits: 5
Course parameters:
Language: English
Level of course: PhD course
Time of year: 20 - 23 October 2025.
No. of contact hours/hours in total incl. preparation, assignment(s) or the like: Participants are expected to deliver 150 working hours.
Capacity limits: Approximately 25 participants.
Course fee: PhD student fee, single room 825 Euro (Monday to Thursday, 3 nights, meals and excursion).
PhD student fee, shared double room 625 Euro (Monday to Thursday, 3 nights, meals and excursion)
Non-PhD student fee (upon availability): 950 Euro (Monday to Thursday, 3 nights, meals and excursion), single days (no room): 210 Euro.
Objectives of the course:
To offer the participants a solid background of the theory and research in stress biology, via lectures by leading researchers within the field, central literature, group work and practical exercises/demonstrations, providing an update of the link between stress, physiology and behaviour, focusing on the function of the whole animal.
Learning outcomes and competences:
At the end of the course, the student should be able to:
Compulsory programme:
EVALUATION
Diploma following approved participation in and accomplishment of the course.
Course contents:
Click here to see the preliminary programme.
Prerequisites:
Ongoing or completed PhD study.
Name of lecturers:
Course responsible: Jens Malmkvist, Senior scientist, PhD
Other teachers: Associate professor Janne Winther Christensen, Aarhus University, Denmark
Type of course/teaching methods:
The course is based on presentations and lectures by internationally recognised stress researchers combined with participants presenting relevant parts of their PhD-projects. Additionally, the course involves a combination of group work and plenary discussions, focusing on classic aspects of stress biology and its interpretation. Practical demonstrations and exercises are included as well.
Literature:
Background literature, ‘An introduction to stress’
Selye H. 1936. A syndrome produced by diverse nocuous agents. Nature 138, 32.
Weis JM. 1968. Effects of coping responses on stress. J. Comp. Phsyiol. Psychol. 65, 251-260.
Weis JM. 1971. Effect of coping behaviour in different warning signal conditions on stress pathology in rats. J. Comp. Physiol. Psychol. 77, 1-13.
Sapolsky RM, Romero LM, Munck AU. 2004. How do glucocorticoids influence stress responses? Integrating permissive, suppressive, stimulatory, and preparative actions. Endocrine Reviews 21, 55-89. Doi: 10.1210/er.21.1.55
Jensen P, Toates FM. 1997. Stress as a state of motivational systems. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 53, 145-156.
Sarabdjitsingh RA, Joëls M, de Kloet ER. 2012. Glucocorticoid pulsatility and rapid corticosteroid actions in the central stress response. Physiol. Behav. 106, 73-80.
Sapolsky RM. 2015. Stress and the brain: individual variability and the inverted-U. Nature Neuroscience 18, 1344-1346.
Topic I-III, to be confirmed by keynote speakers:
Topic I
Creel S, Dantzer B, Goymann W, Rubenstein DR. 2013. The ecology of stress: effects of the social environment. Functional Ecology 27, 66-80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2012.02029.x
MacDougall-Shackelton SA, Bonier F, Romero LM, Moore IT. 2019. Glucorticoids and “Stress” are not synonymous. Comment. Integrative organismal biology 1, doi: 10.1093/iob/obz017
Romero LM, Wingfield JC. 2016. Models of stress. Chapter 3 in Tempess, Poxes, Predators, and People: Stress in Wild Animals and How They Cope. Oxford University Press, pp. 71-113.
Romero LM. 2002. Seasonal changes in plasma glucocorticoid concentrations in free-living vertebrates. General and comparative endocrinology 128, 1-24.
Romero LM., 2004. Physiological stress in ecology: lessons from biomedical research. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19, 250-255.
Romero LM, Beattie UK. 2022. Common myths of glucocorticoid function in ecology and conservation. J. Exp. Zool. Part A-Ecol. Integrative Physiol. 337, 7-14.
Romero LM, Dickens MJ, Cyr NE. 2009. The reactive scope model – A new model integrating homeostasis, allostasis, and stress. Hormones and Behavior 55, 375-389.
Topic II
Champagne FA. 2013. Early environments, glucocorticoid receptors, and behavioral epigenetics. Behav Neurosci, 127, 628–636. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034186
Chin EH, Love OP, Verspoor JJ, Williams TD, Rowley K, Burness G. 2009. Juveniles exposed to embryonic corticosterone have enhanced flight performance. Proc Biol Sci, 276, 499–505. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.1294
Goerlich VC, Nätt D, Elfwing M, Macdonald B, Jensen P. 2012. Transgenerational effects of early experience on behavioral, hormonal and gene expression responses to acute stress in the precocial chicken. Hormones and Behavior, 61, 711–718. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2012.03.006
Hedlund L, Palazon T, Jensen P. 2021. Stress during Commercial Hatchery Processing Induces Long-Time Negative Cognitive Judgement Bias in Chickens. Animals 2021, 11, 1083. https://doi.org/10.3390/ANI11041083
Maccari S, Krugers HJ, Morley-Fletcher S, Szyf M, Brunton PJ. 2014. The consequences of early-life adversity: neurobiological, behavioural and epigenetic adaptations. J Neuroendocrinol, 26, 707–723. https://doi.org/10.1111/jne.12175
Rutherford KMD, Donald RD, Arnott G, Rooke JA, Dixon L, Mehers JJM, Turnbull J, Lawrence AB. 2012. Farm animal welfare: assessing risks attributable to the prenatal environment. Animal Welfare, 21, 419–429. https://doi.org/10.7120/09627286.21.3.419
Cook NJ. 2012. Review: Minimally invasive sampling media and the measurement of corticosteroids as biomarkers of stress in animals. Canadian Journal of Animal Science, 92, 227–259. https://doi.org/10.4141/CJAS2012-045
Gormally BMG, Romero LM. 2020. What are you actually measuring? A review of techniques that integrate the stress response on distinct time-scales. Functional Ecology, 34, 2030–2044. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13648
Guenther A, Groothuis AGG, Krüger O, Goerlich-Jansson VC. 2018. Cortisol during adolescence organises personality traits and behavioural syndromes. Hormones and Behavior, 103, 129–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2018.06.010
Mormède P, Andanson S, Aupérin B, Beerda B, Guémené D, Malmkvist J, Manteca X, Manteuffel G, Prunet P, van Reenen CG, Richard S, Veissier I. 2007. Exploration of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function as a tool to evaluate animal welfare. Physiol Behav 92, 317–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2006.12.003
Ohl F, van der Staay FJ. 2012. Animal welfare: At the interface between science and society. Veterinary Journal, 192, 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tvjl.2011.05.019
Tilbrook AJ, Ralph CR. 2018. Hormones, stress and the welfare of animals. Animal Production Science, 58, 408–415. https://doi.org/10.1071/AN16808
Topic III
Bell AM, Bakström T, Huntingford FA, Pottinger, TG, Winberg, S. 2007. Variable neuroendocrine responses to ecologically-relevant challenges in sticklebacks. Physiol. Behav. 91, 15-25.
Backström T, Schjolden J, Øverli Ø, Thörnqvist P-O, Winberg S. 2011. Stress effects on AVT and CRF systems in two strains of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) divergent in stress responsiveness. Horm. Behav. 59, 180-186
Summers CH, Winberg S. 2006. Interactions between neural regulation of stress and aggression. J. Exp. Biol. 209, 4581-4589.
Schjolden J, Winberg S. 2007. Genetically variation in stress responsiveness in Rainbow trout: Behavior and neurobiology. Brain Behav. Evol. 70, 227-238.
Course homepage:
Course assessment:
Diploma following approved participation in and accomplishment of the course.
Provider:
Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences
Special comments on this course:
Time:
20 - 23 October 2025.
Place:
Vingsted Hotel and Conference Centre
Vingsted Skovvej 2
DK - 7182 Bredsten
Course fee:
PhD student fee, single room 825 Euro (Monday to Thursday, 3 nights, meals and excursion).
PhD student fee, shared double room 625 Euro (Monday to Thursday, 3 nights, meals and excursion)
Non-PhD student fee (upon availability): 950 Euro (Monday to Thursday, 3 nights, meals and excursion), single days (no room): 210 Euro.
Registration:
Deadline for registration is 11 August 2025. Information regarding admission will be sent out no later than 22 August 2025.
For registration:
Send an email to Emma Bonde Stanek, ebs@anivet.au.dk including title and start year of PhD project, scientific keywords, proposed title of participant presentation, animal species and contact information.
Download registration form here.
If you have any questions, please contact Emma Bonde Stanek e-mail: ebs@anivet.au.dk
