Neospora caninum is an intracellular parasite that was first recognized in dogs in 1984. The parasite is now one of the most commonly diagnosed infectious causes of abortion in cattle word wide. N. caninum is transmitted to cattle in two ways. They may be infected from eating food contaminated with oocysts from a definitive host or they may be infected in utero from an infected mother. The infection is transmitted efficiently from cow to her offspring and this can occur for generations.

The tick-borne disease bovine anaplasmosis is primarily caused by Anaplasma marginale. A variety of wild animals act as reservoirs for A. marginale, but the understanding of their role in the epidemiology of A. marginale is yet poor. This cross-sectional study was conducted to establish if proximity of wildlife affect the prevalence of bovine anaplasmosis in cattle.

There is convincing research which shows that the enzyme alkaline phosphatase (ALP) has a central role in the mineralization of bone, more precisely that its catalytic activity is needed in the process. ALP is found on the surface of matrix vesicles where the mineral is formed. One theory about the function of the enzyme is that it binds to fibrous collagen in the bone and thereby incorporating the mineral into the bone. The purpose of this study is to establish whether ALP binds to collagen. If this is the case, more elaborate studies around this will be performed.

Two species of bees in the genus Apis, real honey bees, has long been of interest for man. These two are the European honey bee, Apis mellifera, and the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana. In Vietnam, beekeeping is of great importance, both with A.cerana and A.mellifera. The aim of this project was to investigate if the introduction of the European honey bee in Asia has affected the Asian honey bee, and whether different pathogens from A.mellifera have been transferred to A.cerana. Totally 40 samples, 20 from every species, were analysed for 8 different viruses.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) är den epidemi som 2003 spred sig från Guangdong provinsen i Kina till 26 länder runt om i världen. Sjukdomen som orksakades av SARS-coronavirus (SARS-CoV), drabbade under utbrottet 8098 personer och tog 774 liv. SARS är ett utmärkt exempel på hur en dödlig sjukdom kan komma från ?ingenstans? för att snabbt, spridas med hjälp av vårt globaliserade samhälle. Viruset utsöndras med luftvägssekret, feces och urin och kan under fuktiga och gynnsamma omständigheter vara infektionsdugligt i upp till fyra dygn. I regel krävs direktkontakt eller nära kontakt mellan smittbärare och frisk individ för att sprida viruset vidare.

Background: As a part of a national health control program, Statens VeterinärmedicinskaAnstalt performs diagnostics to screen flocks for certain pathogens causing high mortality,morbidity and/or serious economical losses. There are several viruses in the programincluding IBDV (infectious bursal disease virus), IBV (infectious bronchitis virus) and NDV(Newcastle disease virus). Method: 96 serum samples were collected from different poultryflocks in Sweden and analyzed by ELISA, which are currently used in the health controlprogram as well as by a commercial prototype of a multiplex immunoassay manufactured byLuminex Corp., which is currently under evaluation at the United States Department ofAgriculture USDA. This 4-plex assay detects antibodies for the three above-mentionedviruses as well as antibodies of avian reovirus. In the context of this study the ELISAs run inroutine diagnostics as well as a REO ELISA were used as the standard for comparison.Result: The antibody concentration in serum from vaccinated chickens was high while theantibody concentration level in serum from not vaccinated chickens was low.

Background: As a part of a national health control program, Statens VeterinärmedicinskaAnstalt performs diagnostics to screen flocks for certain pathogens causing high mortality,morbidity and/or serious economical losses. There are several viruses in the programincluding IBDV (infectious bursal disease virus), IBV (infectious bronchitis virus) and NDV(Newcastle disease virus). Method: 96 serum samples were collected from different poultryflocks in Sweden and analyzed by ELISA, which are currently used in the health controlprogram as well as by a commercial prototype of a multiplex immunoassay manufactured byLuminex Corp., which is currently under evaluation at the United States Department ofAgriculture USDA. This 4-plex assay detects antibodies for the three above-mentionedviruses as well as antibodies of avian reovirus. In the context of this study the ELISAs run inroutine diagnostics as well as a REO ELISA were used as the standard for comparison.Result: The antibody concentration in serum from vaccinated chickens was high while theantibody concentration level in serum from not vaccinated chickens was low.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic respiratory disease with an estimated incidence of 3-6 cases per 100 000 inhabitants in Sweden. There is no cure for the disease, which inevitably leads to death. A similar disease has been found among terrier dogs, with an especially high prevalence in the West Highland White Terrier (WHWT). Dogs with pulmonary fibrosis become lethargic with exercise intolerance, and in some cases they develop cough and respiratory distress. This thesis gives a brief review of the field of pulmonary fibrosis and presents a method for analyzing surfactant proteins in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in the dog.

The artic fox is under threat of extermination in Europe. The population decreased strongly at the beginning of the twentieth century because of intensive hunting. The artic fox was placed under protection by law 1928 in Sweden but despite this the population has had difficultly to recover. This can depend on several reasons, but the main threats are shortage of food and competition from the red fox. Along with Norway and Finland, Sweden has carried out a project called SEFALO (Saving the Endangered Fennoscandian Alopex lagopus), whose objectives were to prevent continued decreased populationnumbers and through, for example supplementary feeding, help the population to recover.

The world?s population reached more than 6.9 billion people in July 2011. It is expected that the population growth during the next 40 years will take place mostly in low-income countries and the population increase will be 2.3 billion people during 2011-2050. A rapid urbanization is also expected to result in 57.7 per cent of Africa?s population living in urban areas in 2050.

So far, only limited research has been carried out on viruses infecting raspberry, even though the diseases that these viruses cause result in economical losses for raspberry growers. Raspberry ringspot virus (RpRSV) belongs to the family Comoviridae and the genus Nepovirus. Nepoviruses are characterized by their icosahedral virus particles and bipartite genome of single-stranded (+) RNA (RNA-1 and RNA-2). These viruses are transmitted mainly by nematodes of the genus Longidorus, which feed on the roots of plants. RpRSV causes disease in raspberry, grapevine, strawberry and many other plants.

The Swine flu (H1N1) erupted in 2009 and wasquickly spread over the world and developed into a pandemic, with a great threat against people?s health. It was soon discovered that the H1N1?virus had a different character than the seasonal flu, since it especially affected younger individuals and the consequences from the disease were expected to be more severe. In Sweden it was decided to provide a free of charge vaccination against the H1N1-virus, and the Swedish vaccination ratiobecome relatively high compared to other countries.

Background: Hepatitis E (HEV) is a small, non-enveloped virus that belongs to the viral genus Hepevirus. HEV is a positive sense single-stranded RNA virus and there is insufficient information regarding its replication. This is mainly because the virus has low capacity to grow in normally used cell cultures. Many specific strand assay detection studies have been done in order to understand more about HEV replication. Unfortunately, these assays have the disadvantage of giving false positive results.Aim: The aim of this project was to improve the positive strand assay to increase specificity and eliminate false positivity which is due to high sensitivity of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Felint coronavirus (FCoV) är vanligt förekommande hos våra katter. Viruset i sig orsakar för det mesta inga symtom alls eller en mild enterit, men hos vissa individer muterar viruset och orsakar den dödliga sjukdomen Felin infektiös peritonit (FIP). De flesta katter som smittas av FCoV bär på viruset i veckor till månader för att sedan göra sig av med det. Vissa katter blir persistenta bärare och smittspridare. Eftersom viruset är så spritt i vår kattpopulation är det svårt att sanera en besättning från FCoV.

Amyotrofisk Lateral Skleros, ALS, är en neurologisk sjukdom vilken leder till att samtliga kroppens muskler förtvinas och dör. Då sjukdomen saknar bot blir all behandling symptomatisk och individuellt anpassad för varje enskild persons behov. I denna systematiska litteraturstudie har det sökts efter olika sätt att stötta denna patientgrupp då syftet att belysa hur vi som personal kan hjälpa och stötta personer med ALS relaterad dysfagi och andningsproblem till en så bra tillvaro som möjligt skulle belysas.Författarna har funnit att omvårdnaden sällan sätts i fokus. Det är istället de lösningar som tar bort symtomet som fått fokus i flertalet av de artiklar som granskats. Att hjälpa dessa personer till trygga och oberoende människor som kan fortsätta att leva istället för som många av artiklarna visade då det gjordes insatser som ledde till att personerna blev mer bundna till sina anhöriga och sina vårdare..