Light has always fascinated humans but ever since the invention of the first light bulb, the use of artificial lighting has accelerated dramatically. Darkness has never been as rare as today and the overuse of lighting has created a new phenomenon called light pollution. Most living beings are biologically dependent on the recurrent twenty-four-hour rhythm of light and darkness, called the circadian cycle. Human beings are evolutionary developed after this circadian rhythm and the effects of constant artificial light is yet unknown. Scientists fear the consequences of constant lighting and what it means physically, mentally and philosophically for the human species.

The aim of this paper was to study incoming complaints to The County Administrative Board in Västra Götaland during 2011 and examine if it was possible to see a connection between warranted and unwarranted complaints and informer, animal species and type of inadequate. In Västra Götaland, a complaint is classified as warranted if the inspection leads to a reprimand, whether it regards what was reported or not. Data were collected during three weeks through The County Administrative Board´s record system Platina and a total of 456 complaints were studied. The parameter ?complainant? was categorized into four groups according to The County Administrative Boards own division; public with the subgroups anonymous and non-anonymous, animal health staff and others.

Research concerning movement patterns of wild animals has been advancing since GPS technology arrived. But studying the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is still difficult because of the harsh territory it inhabits in Central Asia. This study took place in south Gobi, Mongolia, and aimed to estimate the time spent at kills and the maximum distance away from kills between visits. Snow leopards were monitored with GPS collars that took a location every five or seven hours. Potential kill sites were established by identifying clusters of GPS-locations in ArcGIS and visited in the field for confirmation.

Concentration of protein in bovine milk is one of the most significant milk quality parameters, to a large extent determining the price for milk to the producer. Mastitis is a common disease among dairy cows, negatively affecting not only milk yield but also milk protein composition. Milk from mastitic cows tends to have lower cheese yield, negatively affected processability properties and sensory quality, due to changed protein quality and composition. Poorer milk protein quality would have an economically negative impact on dairy industry. Only few studies have investigated the short term effects of mastitis on milk protein composition.

Migration is a worldwide phenomenon that has occurred for thousands of years in a vast variety of species. The general knowledge of migrating animals is poor even though billions of animals from a range of different groups migrate every year. The human impact on migrating ungulates is high and many populations are declining globally due to direct and indirect causes. Hence it becomes vital to study the migration phase and the habitat and resources selected during migration. The objective with this study was to identify the habitat characteristics and resource selection of moose during migration and compare the selection between different seasons and utilization distribution (relative frequency distribution for the points of location of an animal over a period of time) categories.

The virus-mediated disease Rift Valley fever (RVF) was discovered during an outbreak in Kenya in the 1930s. Since then it has spread to most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, and in the last decades several outbreaks have caused economic and health issues in Africa, Yemen and Saudi-Arabia. The disease mainly affects domestic livestock, causing abortions, but is also a zoonosis. To be able to control the spread of the disease it is important with surveillance for better knowledge about the distribution and virus circulation even in inter-epidemic/epizootic periods. The human population is growing, and people and their livestock constantly move closer to areas with wild animals which act as reservoirs for different viruses. Also, humans and their animals often get within reach for arthropod vectors, hosting or carrying viruses.

Africa is expected to go through a rapid urbanization over the next four decades and the demand for food is increasing in the rapidly growing urban and peri-urban (UPU) areas. Keeping livestock in urban areas is in particular associated with health hazards. This is due to close interaction between humans and animals, and it has been shown that zoonotic diseases are increasing in urban areas. The benefits of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) are related to improved food security, in particular among low-income groups. Apart from the negative public health impact of zoonotic diseases, animal disease could have a devastating impact on the economy and food security of many households in these areas. In the present study, three important endemic diseases, including brucellosis, salmonellosis and Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD), were analyzed in regard to seroprevalence and risk factors.

In the medieval ruling catholic time the church walls was swarmed with programs of pictures with religious motives there the animal figures rich symbolics was significant first and foremost for the illiterate. Principally the inspiration comes from the antiquitys pagan world of fables and bestiary Christian world of symbols with the bible as the essential source. The essay describes six of the most common animal symbols who occur; dragon, the sneak in the Paradise, mouth of hell, lion, the fox as a preacher and the devil.To attain to a discussion about why just animals are used as symbols for human characteristics in the medieval church art instead for human beings as it's actually be about, I have studied bestiary and other literature about medieval churchpainting to get an understanding about the history of ideas about the thoughts of the time and about symbolics of animals, worth and how the Christianity have had an influence on the pictures.I have used Johannes Rosenrods church pictures from Tensta church in Uppland from 1437 as an exemplification but also mentioned other unknown painters who used similar animal codes and motives.It's plausible that the purpose of the animal figures was both religious and political, which was used by both the spiritual and the worldly authority so they could keep their dominance over the peasant. The figures was simple to read and remember and they made a deep impression on the people together with the sermon. The churchgoer get so to speak a sound- and image experience, a medieval reality who impress their world of ideas.When it's about the artistic formation of religious expression and characteristics it was undoubtedly a great advantage for the artists to use an animal code like a schemata.

During pre-slaughter handling of pigs the animals are often subjected to methods that induces stress and are a threat to the wellbeing of the animals, such as mixing of groups, loud noise and transportation. A new law will be implemented in 2006 in Sweden that prohibits mechanical noise exceeding 65 dB in abattoirs. The purpose of the research presented in this paper was to examine the effects of noise and transportation on pig behaviour. The activity and aggressiveness of the pigs were examined with behavioural studies during transportation and during three different noise levels: 55, 75 and 95 dB. Before the noise treatments took place the groups were mixed and half of them were transported for approximately 2 hours. In the study 432 pigs were used.

Research concerning movement patterns of wild animals has been advancing since GPS technology arrived. But studying the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is still difficult because of the harsh territory it inhabits in Central Asia. This study took place in south Gobi, Mongolia, and aimed to estimate the time spent at kills and the maximum distance away from kills between visits. Snow leopards were monitored with GPS collars that took a location every five or seven hours. Potential kill sites were established by identifying clusters of GPS-locations in ArcGIS and visited in the field for confirmation.

Tidigare studier visar att människor som bor på särskilt boende ofta lider av depression och ensamhet. Personalen som jobbar på särskilt boende är ofta upptagna med de dagliga sysslorna och tiden för social interaktion med de boende är ofta begränsad. Detta kan resultera i en känsla av övergivenhet och ångest hos den boende. Genom århundradena, så har människan alltid använt sig av husdjur som ett sällskap och tröst. Studier visar att den generella hälsan förbättras och stärks genom umgänget med djur.

Emerging infectious diseases poses a great future threat, not only to humans but also to domestic animals and wildlife. Even though the majority of these infections only cause minor health problems, the relatively recent emergence of HIV clearly illustrates that the next major human pandemic may surface at any time. Regardless of what the name indicates, most emerging human pathogens are not believed to be recently evolved, but to have existed previously in the natural environment. Most emerging pathogens are zoonotic, i.e. able to infect animals besides humans.

To produce fine fibre wool as a complement to lamb meat production, Merino and Svea sheep are currently being crossbred in the county of Jämtland. The aim of this study was to evaluate growth and wool quality of the first crossbred lambs. In addition, a literature study about nutritional effects on wool production has been carried out. The literature study showed that fine fibre wool should foremost be achieved through directed breeding. Nutritional requirements of the sheep at different stages of production should determine their feeding.

This essay is intended for veterinary nurses and its purpose is to contribute to an increased knowledge about the ferret and there by a better nursing care at clinics. The essay discuss in briefness origin and earlier use of the ferret but also anatomy, physiology and reproduction. The senses of the ferret, as vision and hearing, are described in connection with behaviour. The part of the essay where nursing care is described bring up procedures as handling when collecting blood, medical techniques and how the clinic best should be suited for these animals. The main part of the essay is based on literature studies but it also contains a study visit at Blå Stjärnans animal hospital in Göteborg. 23.

Abstract The purpose of this work is to investigate children?s perception of Swedish birds. Through qualitative questions there were twelve children interviewed. I showed the pictures for the children of different animals that we discussed but with focus on birds. The children could partly distinguish which of the pictures that represented birds and who did not.