To be able to provide the growing human population with food, the productivity of the animals as well as land use needs to be improved and intensified. Hence, understanding the behavior of animals is crucial both for animal welfare and productivity as well as the management of the cattle. There are many factors affecting the grazing behavior of cattle in tropical conditions, such as human-animal interactions, herd management, Breed, season and temperature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the grazing behavior of two tropical cattle Breeds, Ankole and Boran cattle. Kenyan Boran belongs to a zebu type of cattle and is preferred to many other Breeds due to the higher productive and reproductive capacity and adaptability to tropical conditions.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common heart disease in cats. Maine coon is one of the Breeds where the disease is overrepresented. Studies have shown that HCM is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait in Maine Coon cats. This finding has led to cardiac screening using ultrasound in the Breed. The results of the screening are used in a national Breeding program constructed to reduce the spread and incidence of HCM in Maine Coon cats.

In 1993, Sweden signed the Convention on Biological Diversity and thus agreed to conserve our indigenous biological diversity. As a part of the convention, Sweden is obliged to conserve a number of domestic animal Breeds and among them the Linderöd pig. In 1952, the zoo, Skånes Djurpark, took care of a pregnant sow that was regarded to be related to the old "forest pig". The old forest pig was thought to have been extinguished by the early 20th century as a result of the ban on boars not approved by state inspectors. However, according to later accounts, several farmers still kept some of these non-approved pigs.

I the year of 2008 there were more than 60 000 purebred dogs newly registered in theSwedish Kennel Club. In addition there are a lot of mixed Breed dogs and in the year of2006 it was estimated that there were over 700 000 dogs in Sweden. In today?s society it isnot unusual that people change their life situation by moving, getting a new job or startinga family. Because of this there is a risk of rehoming for dogs owned by these people.In Sweden dogs are among others rehomed by advertising or by rehoming organisations.

Rhodesian ridgeback is a dog Breed that originates from southern Africa. The characteristic ridge (a dorsal ridge where the hair grows in the opposite direction to the general coat) is shared with an Asian Breed, Thai ridgeback. The origin and inheritance of the ridge has been examined and defined. The ridge-mutation is a duplication that contains four complete genes, FGF3, FGF4, FGF19 and ORAOV1 and the 3´-end of CCND1. The ridge is inherited as an autosomal, dominant trait and predisposes for Dermoid sinus (DS), a disease that develops during embryogenesis.

Too many dogs are euthanized because of different kind of behaviour problems today. Is it really necessary? Who has the main responsibility for this action? Do Breed differences matter when it comes to increased risk of euthanasia of the dog? The purpose of this piece of work is to find the answers to these questions and also to find out what kind of behaviour problems that can lead to euthanasia of dogs in general. The most common reason for dogs being euthanized is aggression. The aggression can be directed toward humans or other animals, mostly other dogs. There are some important factors of the dog that increases the risk of being euthanized, and these are the Breed, the gender and sexual status and also the size of the dog.

Hypoadrenocorticism (Addison´s disease) results from insufficient production of glucocorticoid and mineralcorticoid hormones from the adrenal glands. The disease is often difficult to diagnose in an early stage because of the multitude of associated vague clinical signs. The standard poodle is one Breed presupposed to be at higher risk of developing the disease. The purpose of this study was to give a review of canine hypoadrenocorticism as described in literature, and to characterise Addison´s disease in a population of standard poodles in Sweden. Statistics on incidenceproportions by Breed for hypoadrenocorticism from the database of the Swedish insurance company Agria are presented.

The chow-chow Breed is considered to have a low fertility and this report is an in depth study of the reproductive functions of this Breed in Sweden. Only 53 % of the Chow-chow matings results in litters. Previous studies of other Breeds in commercial kennels shows mating results around 85-90 %, but this has not been investigated in hobby kennels and most Chow-chows which are bred from in Sweden, are kept as family pets. Contrary to most other Breeds, Chow-chows show a seasonal reproductive pattern and most litters are born in the autumn. The influence of the month of mating on pregnancy rate and litter size was found to be not significant, but can be considered a trend. Thirty-nine females with previous known fertility problems where studied. Some of them had reached puberty extremely early, at an age between 4-5 months, and many of the bitches showed great fluctuations in intervals between oestrus cycles. Some of the females showed abnormalities such as very short oestrus intervals of only 2-3 months, probably without ovulating.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the cow-level association between acute hoof lesions and the somatic milk cell count in dairy cattle. Cows from three loose-housed Swedish dairy herds were enrolled in the study if they had an acute hoof lesion treated by a veterinarian or professional hoof trimmer during the preceding year, according to farmer records. Studied lesions were sole ulcer, dermatitis, interdigital necrobacillosis and hoof abscess, in each case causing lameness. For each hoof-diseased cow, 0 to 3 healthy cows were included, matched with respect to herd, Breed, parity and lactation stage. Cell counts were obtained from monthly test recordings from one month before to three months after the hoof-lesion diagnosis, and log-transformed.

In total 249 horses surgically treated for colic in Sweden during 2002 until 2005 were studied. The horses was identified by the animal insurance company Agria. Survival was studied with respect to age, gender, Breed, diagnosis (small intestinal problems, caecal problems, large intestinal problems, incarceration in nephrosplenic ligament, unspecific colic and other colic problems) and treating hospital. Different survivals were calculated. For short-term survival proportions was used and for long-term it was done using Kaplan-Meier technique and log-rank testing.

A survey was undertaken to understand sheep management, Breeding practices and selection criteria for Red Maasai sheep in Maasai pastoralist communities in Kajiado District, Kenya. Differences between North and South Kajiado District were investigated to gain knowledge about farmers having different prerequisites and how it can affect the sheep production. The reason for keeping sheep and the specific Breeds show the multiple objectives of the Maasai farmers. Adaptive traits, such as resistance to diseases and droughts, and productive traits, such as increased growth and carcass weight, were both ranked highly. In addition to this, the sheep has a social and traditional value in Maasai culture.

The canine population has during it?s time with humans gone through at least 2 major genetic bottlenecks, the first when it was separated from the wolf, and the second when it was divided into different Breeds. Among other things, this has lead to the accumulation of unwanted genes, such as genes causing disease in dogs. One such inherited disease is syringomyelia, which has proven to be more common than expected, especially in certain smaller Breeds such as the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Syringomyelia in dogs is often a secondary condition caused by the malformation called occipital hypoplasia.

The purpose of this thesis was to analyze conception and foaling results of Swedish warmblood and Standardbred trotters using Breeding statistics during the years 2000-2006. Key issues in this thesis were: Have the conception and foaling results of stallions changed during the period 2000-2006? What is the effect of the use of various Breeding methods? Is testicle size correlated with conception and foaling results? How important are age, Breed and level of inBreeding of the stallion for conception and foaling results? Breeding statistics were available for 537 Swedish Warmblood stallions and 305 Standardbred trotter stallions. To be included in the analyses, a stallion must have mated at least ten mares in total over the period 2000-2006. This criterion was met by 313 Swedish Warmblood stallions and 272 Standardbred trotter stallions.

It is a well known fact today that suffering due to skin disorders is one of the most common causes to veterinary calls. For the Doberman Breed included in the group of working dogs, the frequency and distribution of the different skinrelated diagnoses that causes visits to the veterinary clinics remains undocumented. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of skinrelated problems causing veterinary visits of Doberman at four different veterinaryclinics in Sweden retrospectively, and compare these results with dogs in general and three other working dog Breeds with the help of information collected from Agria - a Swedish animal insurance company. The total amount of veterinary calls that were registered at the clinics in question during the time of the study was 2460 visits. From these, 658 visits were due to skinrelated disorders, which amount to 27%. The most frequent cause to skinsuffering was injury caused by trauma, 15,7% of the Dobermans that were included in the study were affected, the second most frequent cause was inflammatory and infectious skin problems with 12,3% followed by neoplastic changes in the skin with 7% of the Dobermans affected.

In Swedish sheep industry it is desired to have lambs slaughtered evenly distributed over the year. Swedish sheep are generally seasonal Breeders with lambs born in the spring and slaughtered in the autumn. Some of the Breeds, e.g. Swedish Finewool and Roslag sheep Breeds have shown ability to lamb out of season. For increased knowledge on the possibilities to Breed for out-of-season lambing in Swedish sheep Breeds, the aim of this master thesis is to study the variation in frequency of two alleles in the MTNR1A gene in the three Breeds; Gotland, Swedish Finewool, and Roslag sheep.