London, Sep 4 (IANS): A joint study by researchers from four universities has suggested women could improve quality of their offspring by mating with multiple partners.

Experts examined the behaviour of an ancestor of the domestic chicken and found that mating with different males helped females produce offspring that are more resistant to disease, Daily Mail reported.

Now they claim their findings could be applied to other animals as well as humans.

"Our research has shown that females don’t need to choose between males to produce the most healthy offspring," said David S. Richardson from the University of East Anglia. "Rather by mating with multiple males, they allow their internal choice mechanism to favour the most genetically different sperm."

"This could be the case in other animals - including humans, however, the practicality of testing this in mammals would be very difficult, and obviously impossible in humans for ethical reasons."

During their study, researchers studied red jungle fowl using both natural matings and artificial insemination in a project with the University of Oxford, Stockholm University and Linkoping University.