Claw diseases are common diseases in modern dairy production. They are painful for the cow and costly for the producer. Differences in the prevalence of claw disease depending on housing system have previously been observed. This raises the question if there are genotype by environment (GxE) interactions for claw diseases in different housing systems. To investigate this claw trimming records for Swedish Red dairy Cattle (SR) and Swedish Holstein cows (SH) were retrieved from the Swedish Dairy Association.

As the world´s population increases and people's living conditions are improving, larger areas are needed for houses as well as food production. This means that new areas are exploited and that people, livestock, blood sucking insects and wild animals are forced to live close together. In combination with the global warming, leading to extreme weather such as floods and storms, this allows both new and old pathogens to emerge. The number of "emerging infectious diseases", EIDs, has increased in recent years and many of them have their origin in poor, tropical countries. Moçambique is therefore considered to be a high risk area for EIDs. Schmallenberg virus, SBV, was discovered in 2011 as an "emerging infectious disease" in dairy cows in Germany.

Fossil fuels are affecting our climate negatively and there is a limited amount of them in the world, which leads to the importance of finding alternative fuels. One alternative is biogas, which is produced though a digestion process of different organic materials in a biogasreactor. Organic substrate that comes from farms has the biggest potential to increase the production of biogas in Sweden. Primarily crops from farms, but also waste products like manure are of great importance.Today there is a calculated theoretical potential for biogasproduction of 14TWh per year, which is around ten times larger than Sweden?s production today.

To get a good economy on the dairy farms the fertility control of heifers and cows is a crucial factor. It is also important to know which key parameters that should be tracked. In this work well established routines for heat detection have to be applied. When the dairy farmers use technical aid in estrus control it is important not to forget that technical aids can not replace the human eye. Approximately 50 % of all opportunities to inseminate are missed because clear signs of estrus have not been displayed and/or recorded. The Cattle fertility has been declining over recent years. During the same time the cow?s proceeds have increased, consequently applying a higher pressure on the cow and the manager.

Claw health has been recorded by claw trimmers at trimming in Sweden since 1996, but data was then captured at each AI association. From 2003 data was captured by central scanning and entered directly to the national cow data base at the Swedish Dairy Association (SDA). This reporting was introduced because SDA wanted to be able to use these records to improve dairy cow claw health by breeding. It is desirable with cows that have healthy claws, because poor claw health can contribute to impaired production and fertility. The claw health report begins with some information about herd, claw trimmer, date et cetera and continues with the part where the claw health is recorded. Here the ID of each cow is filled in and on the same row the conditions for dermatitis, heel horn erosion, sole haemorrhage and sole ulcer are recorded as no lesion (blank), slight lesion (/) or severe lesion (X).

Oestrus in dairy Cattle has changed over the last decades; the intensity of oestrus has declined and the duration decreased. Several studies have shown that not all dairy cows stand to be mounted, and that oestrus expression in many cases may be characterized by other behaviours. The aim of this study was to investigate oestrus behaviour in a herd of todays? high producing dairy Cattle. The study was carried out at Jälla naturbruksgymnasium in Uppsala during one week in January 2011.

Background: Mastitis in dairy Cattle is a common ailment worldwide. A cause of mastitis can be bacteria such as Escherichia coli. Mastitis is not a deadly ailment and sometimes the dairy cows show no symptoms but if certain virulence genes are present in the bacteria that cause the mastitis, the bacteria can be transmitted to humans and cause severe diseases. The potential presence of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) in particular would be a major concern for human health.Aim: The aim for this study was to analyze the presence of virulence genes known to be present in E.coli strains isolated from dairy cows with mastitis in Sweden.Method: A Qiagen BIO ROBOT EZ1 was used to purify DNA from 90 bacterial cultures. A panel of virulence genes were amplified and biotinylated from the purified DNA by PCR and an E.coli based DNA microarray was used to detect presumed virulence genes in E.coli.Result: There were no samples that had all the genes traditionally used to classify E.coli as EHEC or potential EHEC.

This bachelor-level thesis in historical osteology deals with several aspects of the life-cycle of an RomanIron Age farm in southern Scania. Excavated in the 1980's by Lars Larsson, the farm was located near aplace called Långåker in the Dybäck area, on a cape which stretched out into a minor bog. Our work concerns why the Iron Age people settled the area, how well fragmented bone survives in a bog, what they produced at the farm and how life on the farm finally ended. From the roughly 10 % of the total number of fragments we where able to identify we can conclude, that he species that are present of the farm areusual Iron Age species (dog, sheep/goat, Cattle and swine). We also have a relitivly large number of wildanimals in our material (2%).

Milk yield levels in dairy cows are influenced by many factors such as nutrition, breed, health status, management and environment. This study was conducted among small scale farmers in Zambia, where the climate can be dry for up to six months per year and cause a lack of green pasture for livestock and on-farm produced feed. The purpose of this study was to identify management factors that can influence milk yield at small scale dairy farms in Zambia, and present advice that could improve productivity, without the need of expensive investments. The study included semi-structured questionnaires presented to the farmers (n=29) including questions about Cattle management and milk production. Testing of somatic cell count (SCC) with DCC (DeLaval Cell Counter) from herd milk samples (n=56) and observation of housing and animal body condition on-farm was also made.

When cows in Sweden are inseminated the heat strength is reported to the Swedish milk-recording scheme and AI scheme. Cows that show strong signs of estrus are desirable and the trait is included in the Swedish breeding goal. A strong heat makes it easier to inseminate at the right time and to avoid long and expensive days open. Since ten years the heat strength is scored from one to five by the farmer and reported to the milk-recording scheme and AI scheme. Earlier the score was from one to three and the decision was made by the AI technician.

The aim of this literature study was to analyze how milk urea concentration is working as a measure of the nitrogen supply to rumen microbes and indicator of the environmental load. Questions included in this literature study were how to improve the dairy Cattle nitrogen efficiency and what correlations there are between milk urea, nitrogen efficiency and crude protein content in the feed. Effects on the reproduction from high ration protein content are also addressed. Dairy Cattle are today fed with large proportions of protein which could lead to high expenditure of feed and environmental pollutions. The nitrogen can be lost to the environment by different pathways; leaching, denitrification or by emission to the air.

The aim of this literature study was to analyze how milk urea concentration is working as a measure of the nitrogen supply to rumen microbes and indicator of the environmental load. Questions included in this literature study were how to improve the dairy Cattle nitrogen efficiency and what correlations there are between milk urea, nitrogen efficiency and crude protein content in the feed. Effects on the reproduction from high ration protein content are also addressed. Dairy Cattle are today fed with large proportions of protein which could lead to high expenditure of feed and environmental pollutions. The nitrogen can be lost to the environment by different pathways; leaching, denitrification or by emission to the air.

During the last decade a new technique in animal breeding has developed called genomic selection. It is based on estimations of the effect from genetic markers on traits that are calculated in a reference population. By genotyping individuals, genomic breeding values can then be estimated without phenotypic observations. The aim of this essay is to investigate the response of genomic selection on breeding schemes for dairy Cattle. The accuracy of the genomic breeding values is affected by the proportion of observations included in the validation set and how often the equation for estimating breeding values is reevaluated.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the kind of treatment strategies used by Swedish Veterinarians with Cattle practice when treating calves with symptoms of pneumonia. A questionnaire, consisting of seven questions, was sent to one hundred veterinarians who have had practice with Cattle and are employed by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The survey was answered by a total of 73% of the Veterinarians. Of the respondents, 73 % use Penicillins as their first choice of drug for treating calves with symptoms of pneumonia, and as their second choice 64 % use Tetracycline. Supplementary treatment such as NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and/or SAID (steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) are used by 97.5 % of the respondents.

By examine cremated remains from graves dated to late Iron Age I wanted to find out what sorts of animals were placed in the graves. But also to see if the animal sacrifices had any connection to the Old Norse religion. The osteological material that were analysed were from both cremated humans and animals and had been dated to Viking Age. The material is from burial ground 59 at Laxare, Boge parish on Gotland. In addition to the human remains, the material contains bones from horse, Cattle, sheep/goat, pig, dog, cat, bear, birds and fish.