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Researchers from LiU were among the first to show that stress can be inherited from chickens to their offspring - something that few believed previously. Today, research is conducted in a large, internationally renowned group.

The AVIAN - Behavioural Genomics and Physiology group at Linköping University studies the genetic basis of behaviour and physiology.

What guides the many facets of how animals behave? How has it changed during domestication, and what does it tell us about their welfare? Focusing on chickens and dogs, we tackle such questions using ethology, genetics and epigenetics.

We are interested in understanding behavioural variation, and most of our research is on causes and consequences of animal personality, including links to cognition, sexual selection. We mainly (but not only) use red junglefowl as our model species.

The tendency of dogs to seek contact with their owner is associated with genetic variations in sensitivity for the hormone oxytocin, according to a new study from Linköping University.

Different genes are involved during the adaptation of a domestic animal to life in the wild than when a wild animal becomes domesticated. This is the conclusion of a study led by a LiU researcher.

Male domestic fowl are less aggressive towards related males than to unrelated males when competing for copulations, according to a new study. The finding suggests that domestic fowl can recognise their kin among individuals in a group.

The social ability of dogs is affected by genes that also appear to influence human behaviour, according to a new study by scientists at Linköping University in Sweden.

How are animals in food production affected by stressful experiences early in life? Per Jensen wants to find out whether it is possible to see the traces of stress much later.

Species that are not domesticated can develop a social interaction with humans. Researchers noticed this when conducting a study on junglefowl. They hope that the findings will stimulate further studies into how contact with humans arises.