One of the most serious and economically important defects caused by clostridia in milk products is the late blowing of semi-hard cheeses.Clostridia occur naturally in soil and can contaminate milk through crops contaminated by dung and soil followed by a less successful silage process, that give them opportunity to grow unaerobically. When anaerobic conditions occur, such as storage of semi-hard cheese, they ferment lactic acid to butyric acid and the gases CO2 and H2.At the fusion of Arla and MD Foods, a series of changes were conducted on the MPN method for lactic acid fermentation for clostridia in milk. These changes resulted in an increased accuracy due to an increased number of test tubes and the change of media from MRCM to BBB, Bryant & Burkey Broth, that was thought to be more selective for Cl. tyrobutyricum, the organism mostly found in hard cheese. When the number of dairy farmers that were given quality reduction fines increased, the new method was suspected and a validation was conducted.The validation included inoculation of different clostridia and bacillus strains into BBB substrate and enzymatic testing of positive samples with Rapid ID 32A.

After a workshop in Kuopio held in June 2006, Interbull decided to go forward with the development of a system for beef international genetic evaluation and a three year project called Interbeef was launched in June 2007. The participating countries are so far limited to Europe and the only trait evaluated at present is adjusted weaning weight (weight at 200 days). The results from a first international genetic evaluation have been shared with the countries but are not yet official. The evaluation is based on data from purebred Charolais and Limousin. To achieve good estimates of proofs in an international context it is important that methods for data validation and model selection are implemented.

In Automatic Milking Systems (AMS), cows are kept in a free stall barn equipped with one or several milking units (MU). The cows? activities in the system are called cow traffic. There are three types of cow traffic systems: guided, partly-guided and free. Free systems have no gates, allowing the cows access to the feeding and resting areas at any time.

Schmallenberg virus (SBV) is a novel arthropod-borne orthobunyavirus emerging in Europe in 2011 to 2012. Acute SBV infection causes diarrhoea, fever and reduced milk production in dairy cattle, but it is mainly the reproductive disorders (abortions, malformed foetuses and stillborn animals) in ruminants that have caused substantial economical losses. The prevalence of the virus outside of Europe is poorly investigated. SBV or SBV-like antibodies were detected in Mozambique in 2013, which raised interest for a similar study in Tanzania. In this study in Tanzania, blood samples were collected from 478 sheep and goats from 39 herds in 15 different villages in three districts, covering areas in the north, south and east of Tanzania. The epidemiology of the virus was investigated by tracing antibodies by ELISA and mapping of the virus by PCR was started.

This study investigated the effects of rubber alley flooring on cow locomotion, claw and leg health, production, cleanliness, grooming behaviour and cow exclusion rate in a free stall herd. The study was conducted in a new dairy house with a rotary milking system, with a matched group of cows on traditional scraped concrete alleys used for comparison. All claws were trimmed and lesions recorded at the beginning and end of the 4-month study. Locomotion, claw and leg health, behaviour and hygiene were observed and scored at regular intervals during the study. The results showed that cows on rubber alley floors displayed significantly (p.

The objective of this work was to evaluate and compare three field methods for detection of mastitis, California Mastits Test (CMT), DeLaval cell counter DCC (DCC) and FMA2001 Farm Milk Analyzer (FMA2001). Furthermore, to investigate at what cell count level clinical symptoms of mastitis are seen, and finally to check if the clinical findings and cell counts could be related to bacteriological findings. DCC and FMA2001 are new analytic instruments to be used on dairy farms for detection of mastitis. CMT has been a widely used cow-side-test of milk quality in mastitis control efforts, but it cannot be used for estimating cell counts in scientific studies or investigations. Two hundred and eight quarter milk samples from 52 cows were analysed with DCC and CMT, and 168 of these samples with FMA2001. Microbiological examination was done on 38 milk samples with CMT scores of 4 and 5.

The large-scale soy cultivation has negative consequences for the habitat of local populations because of the intensive use of pesticides and the destruction of rain forests and eco-systems. GM soya, varieties are often used. The majority of Swedish people, however, do not want GM products in their food. It will be hard in future to ensure GM free food, particularly foods that come from countries where GM crops are grown on a large scale. It is very difficult to avoid cross- contamination when both GM and non-GM crops are grown in the same area.

ABSTRACT. Mastitis is one of the most common diseases affecting dairy cows worldwide. In Sweden annu-ally about 60% of the dairy cows get infected and Staphylococcus aureus cause approximately 30% of these infections. Mastitis causes enormous economic losses. In Sweden, the costs to cure mastitis are estimated to be 192 million SEK per year, excluding the costs for mastitis prevention.

The Swedish Red Polled breed is threatened by extinction and there are only around 1100 animals left. The breed was popular in the early twentieth century, but since then the numbers have steadily decreased. The overall objective of this study was to find out whether there may be economic incentives for preserving the breed. The milk quality properties are of major importance in the production of dairy products. Therefore we would like to establish if the Swedish Red Polled breed carries favourable alleles at loci of relevance for milk quality, to potentially make the breed more interesting for milk production.

Fertiliteten hos högavkastande mjölkkor i världen har en negativ trend. Eftersom brunststyrkan avtagit i takt med att mjölkproduktionen ökat, och lantbrukarna har allt mindre tid avsatt för observation av sina djur, finns en växande marknad för automatiska brunstpassningssystem. I denna studie utvärderas ett sådant system; Heatime®. Arbetet är tvådelat, och består av en retrospektiv studie av den eventuella förändring i besättningarnas fertilitetsresultat som uppkommit efter installation av systemet och en enkätstudie som utvärderade hur nöjda 65 lantbrukare var efter inköp. Efter att ha granskat och jämfört fertilitetsdata (antal kor, inkalvningsålder, kalvningsintervall (KI), kalvning till första insemination (KFI), kalvning till sista insemination (KSI), antal inseminationer/serie, 56 dagar non-return, andel dräktiga av nypåbörjade och dräktighetsprocent per insemination) från de databaser som finns i Sverige (kokontroll och seminrapportering) från två år före installation med två år efter konstaterades att dessa värden inte skiljde sig signifikant åt. Detta beror antagligen på att fertiliteten hos mjölkkor är så pass multifaktoriell att det finns fler faktorer än bara brunstpassning som påverkar resultaten. Resultaten av enkätundersökningen visade att majoriteten (94 %) av de som köpt systemet var så pass nöjda att de skulle köpa det igen, och 96 % av dem tyckte sig se en förbättring av fertilitetsresultaten efter installation. Vidare uppgav 76 % att de ansåg sig spara väsentligt med tid varje vecka efter installation av Heatime®. Om tid sparas varje arbetsdag utan negativ påverkan på fruktsamheten får detta ses som en vinst och skulle kunna motivera en installation av systemet.

Sahlgrenska Academyat University of GothenburgDepartment of Internal Medicine and Clinical NutritionAbstractTitle: Cow?s milk and chronic constipation in children ? A systematic reviewAuthor: Sara Palm & Anna SvenssonSupervisor: Frode SlindeExaminer: Anna WinkvistProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 ECTSType of paper: Examination paper, 15 hpDate: May 27, 2014Background: Chronic functional constipation is common among children. Up to a third of all who seek a paediatrician suffer from constipation and it is a widespread problem for children in many countries. Lately it has been discussed if cow?s milk can be a cause of the constipation and if it should be considered a delayed hypersensitivity.Objective: The aim of this systematic review is to examine whether there is scientific evidence to recommend a cow?s milk-free diet as a potential treatment in chronically constipated children.Search strategy: The literature searches were performed in the databases Pubmed, Scopus and the Cochrane library, using the search terms cow?s milk, constipation, milk proteins, dairy products, milk hypersensitivity, cow milk and cows milk between March 17th and April 4th 2014.Selection criteria: Randomized controlled trials measuring stool frequency in chronically constipated children on a cow?s milk-free diet were included.

The presence of cystic ovarian follicles represents an important ovarian dysfunction and is a major cause of reproductive failure in dairy cattle. A cystic ovarian follicle is a persistent follicular-like structure on one or both of the ovaries. It is at least 2,5cm in diameter and it has to persist for at least ten days while a corpus luteum is missing. There are two kinds of cystic ovarian follicles, those who have a progesterone production and those who have not. A clear definition for this condition is lacking, probably because the heterogeneity of the clinical signs and the complexity of the disorder.

At the end of 2008, Arla concluded agreements with several supermarkets in southern Sweden. The agreement with the supermarkets excluded Ska?nemejerier from the stores. This meant that Ska?nemejerier lost approximately 7% of sales volume.

Today, high-yielding leys of good quality are a must for Swedish dairy and beef enterprises if they are to become profitable. Thus, it is of interest to evaluate the quality of the recently released high-yielding Festulolium hybrids ((Festulolium braunii (K.Rich.) A.Camus). The aim of this project was to determine at what phenological stage three different Festulolium hybrids should be cut in order to get the highest nutritional value. The hybrids studied were Hykor, Perun and Paulita. In the study I also investigated if leaf proportion of the crop could be useful for predictions of the crop content of metabolizable energy. The cultivars were grown in plots within a variety trial with ryegrasses.

The purpose with this study was to investigate how the behaviour and physiological parameters differ between high ranked and low ranked cows, and between cows in an automatic milking system verses conventional milking parlour. The study was carried out at the Kungsängen research Centre, Department of animal nutrition an management, Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences, Uppsala. Twelve cows, the six highest and the six lowest in social rank were selected from the automatic milking system for the experiment. Ten cows, the five highest and five lowest in social rank were selected from the conventional system. Blood samples were taken during milking and resting.