Inbreeding, the mating of related individuals, has been the one dominating breeding strategy for dog breeders during the last 200 years. However, its negative effects on fer-tility and other fitness traits, a phenomenon called inbreeding depression, have been ignored in the quest of perfect unity in conformation or performance. The purpose of this study was to test the hypotheses that litter size is reduced as a consequence of in-breeding, affected by both the inbreeding coefficient of the dam and the litter and that a rapid increase in the inbreeding coefficient affects litter size more than a slower rate. Data were collected from the Swedish Kennel Club registry of origin. Breeds included in the study were the Bernese Mountain Dog, the Cocker Spaniel, the Golden Retriever, the Rottweiler and the West Highland White Terrier.

Running water-pathways have played an important roll in Sweden and frequently been manipulated. One profound change was made during the period of logging when streams were cleared from obstacles as big boulders, sharp bends and side-streams. Dams and different constructions gave control of the stream water and the streams became channel-like with a homogen structure. This interference gave problems for many fish populations and resulted in a shortage of feeding habitat, over-wintering habitat, spawning habitat, unnatural flow regimes, sedimentation, unnatural temperature fluctuations. Many of these historical changes of the watersheds are now subjects for restoration, ie., bring back the streams to what we believed it was before the change. However, what once existed in terms of complexity is now gone and difficult toreplace.

Difficult calvings and stillbirths are problems in Swedish dairy production that result in large expenses for the farmers and welfare issues concerning the animals. A common opinion is that the live weight of SRB and SLB is increasing, and whether increased weights have caused the increase in calving problems has been discussed. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the relative birth weight (calf/cow) and calving difficulty and stillbirth, respectively. The importance of breed and parity for the relative weight has been investigated, and comparisons with previous studies have been made to evaluate whether the relative weight has changed over the last decades or not. The study was based on 807 calvings, registered during the period 1993-2003 in the experimental dairy herd of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Jälla).

This work is a literature review along with interviews from nine suckler herds. How to reducecalf mortality in the cow herd is the focus of this paper. To get profitability of a herd, it isimportant that you get a live calf per cow and year. Good fertility of the cows thus is veryimportant. During the years 2007 - 2008, approximately 5.5% of all calves born by beef cowsdied and about 8.5% of the calves born by heifers died.

Open pit mining creates huge amounts of tailings and waste rock deposits. Due to it's content of sulphide minerals, predominantly pyrite (FeS2), there is a risk of oxidation and formation of acid water containing heavy metals, known as Acid Rock Drainage (ARD). To prevent the process of oxidation, the tailings and waste rock have to be reclaimed. The most commonly used methods of reclamation are a coverage of water or soil. Mining also results in a large-scale interference in the landscape that will make an eternal change of its appearance.