The corn plant came to Europe with Christopher Columbus in the 14th century and have ever since bin cropped here, but corn haven?t bin very common in Scandinavia until recently. The mainly use for this crop silage but even corn for grain is cropped in Europe. Corn for grain is a common part of feed in beef and chicken farming. In Sweden corn for grain is pretty rare but almost 1000 hectares are used for this crop, Lantmännen Sverige is the biggest buyer of corn at the moment.

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.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how media has followed the Parken Zoo incident and analyse how media convey the issue about the Parken Zoo incident. The different results have been compared. To answer the purpose of the study three issues has been formulated:  how do the different media relate to the ideal of objectivity? Who come across and get to speak in the different media? What differences and similarities are in the media?   The theories that have been used in this study are mainly McCombs theory of agenda setting, Strömbäck?s theory of framing and theory of media logic, Kovach & Rosenstiel theories of journalism and Manning?s theory of objectivity. The methods that have been used are a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative semiotic analysis.

In 2012, about 1.3 million boars were surgically castrated, most of them without anaesthesia. Castration is performed to avoid the occurrence of boar taint and aggressive and sexual behaviour. There is a growing concern about the welfare of the piglets and the Swedish Board of Agriculture is working to find efficient and functional alternatives to castration without anaesthesia. The aim of this study was to obtain an overall picture of the latest research about the alternatives to castration without anaesthesia, with focus on vaccination against boar taint, and how they affect the welfare of the pigs. The alternative methods that are available today are surgical castration with anaesthesia and/or analgesia, rearing entire males and vaccination against boar taint.

The anatomy and physiology of reptiles and mammals are in many ways different, and will therefore possibly complicate anesthetic administration. Lizards are ectothermic and one should keep in mind that a decrease in the lizard?s environmental temperature may result in reductions in anesthetic metabolism. Respiratory depression is a profound problem because lizards lack a diaphragm, making inhalation and expiration completely active processes. This, in combination with cardiac shunting and breath holding makes the effects of anesthesia unpredictable.

People in Sweden have more and more dogs in their care, and several of these dogs are kept in kennels in back yards for various reasons. According to Swedish animal welfare legislations the need for social contact for dogs has to be met. However, there are few details presented on how to meet the need and when it can be considered satisfied. Does the dog need human contact to fulfill the need, or is the company of other dogs enough? This study aims to specify what can be acceptable when it comes to fulfilling dogs? social needs in accordance with the Swedish animal welfare legislation.

ABSTRACTThe principal aim of the study was to compare the feeding behaviour of cattle, sheep and goats on pasture and explain any differences between speices. Furthermore, I compared foraging behaviour between dry season and the beginning of the rainy season, in order to see any relationships between weather and behaviour.The study was carried out in Shompole in southern Kenya. Behavioural data were collected by observing herds of cattle, sheep and goats on pasture. The livestock were herded on pasture during the days and kept in bomas, where people live, during the nights. The weather in Shompole is characterized by high ambient temperature and low, bimodal rainfall.

The Chinese government´s aim to be self-sufficient in food production in combination with the increased food consumption in China has put high pressure on the productivity within the Chinese agricultural sector (He j et al, 2010). In order to increase the productivity, modernization and adoption of new farming techniques are essential. The opportunity to adopt and import foreign technology has lately been possible in China, as more authority and decision rights have been given to the individual farmers and the country has opened up for foreign trade (Zheng, 2012 & Fan, 1991). A more open Chinese market enables new opportunities for foreign agricultural companies to expand their businesses by introducing their products to Chinese farmers. But to succeed with this strategy the Chinese farmers must be willing to adopt these, for them new innovations. Minimum tillage is a tillage practice used worldwide that is suitable in northern China where drought and erosion are the main problems in the crop production (pers.com., Arvidsson, 2012). Potential users? opinion of new innovations such as minimum tillage is closely related to adoption (Rogers, 2003).

Chemicals are everywhere in todays society, in humans, animals as well as nature, and they are difficult to avoid. The chemical industry is regarded to be the fastest growing industrial sector, accounting for ten percent of the global economy. A large amount of chemicals are used to produce hygiene products and cosmetics, products that in Sweden only are consumed in quantities of 110 tons per day. Researchers find it increasingly difficult to determine which chemicals that are dangerous and which that are safe, and how they might affect us in the long run. Correlations have been found between chemicals, diseases and other health effects such as cancer, allergies, reproductive and endocrine disorders.

Migration and giving birth are crucial decisions for animals during their life cycle, which may have lasting consequences on their population demography and fitness. Migration can entail a variety of possible effects for an individual, such as access to high quality food and reduced risk for predation. The moose (Alces alces) in northern Sweden is partially migratory and moose females are known to give birth to one or two calves. The synchrony between time of calving and timing of migration has not been compared before, especially in terms of energy maximizing and time minimizing perspectives, which may provide vital cues for fitness benefits of migration. I investigated effect of timing of birth and individual life history on distance, timing, stopovers and duration of 190 individually marked female moose that have been tracked for multiple years in ten different areas in northern Sweden.

On the first January 2009 the official animal welfare control were transferred from the municipalities to the County Administrative board. With this transition, some changes occurred for those who work as animal welfare inspectors. The aim for this study was to examine farmers' view on the transition between the municipalities and County Administrative board, in order to compare the two authorities. I have also studied the farmers view about animal welfare inspectors' knowledge, both theoretical and practical. The questionnaire also included questions about farmers' view on animal welfare legislation.

Stormwater is surface runoff water that originates from precipitation or snowmelt and that on hardened surfaces prevents to infiltrate the ground. In city areas stormwater can consists of major amounts pollutants and when reaching a lake or watercourse it can cause damages on vegetation and animals. Therefore it is important to treat polluted stormwater before it reaches the recipient. The municipality of Örebro have since the 90ies an extensive work with treatment of stormwater in sedimentation ponds. A new stormwater treatment project is planned in an industrial estate in Skebäck, Örebro.

This paper deals with a taphonomic study of contexts with osteological material of dog (C. familiaris L.) from the Mesolithic and Neolithic of Sweden and Zealand, Denmark. The general aim is to develop and test a method to try to understand the activity behind and define specific archaeological structures. My questions also regards to wether a taphonomic analysis of the material could be used to identify treatments as wrapping and contraction of the dogs, but also dismembering and other preparations of the body. The study focuses on the relation between the space of decomposition, disarti-culation of the joints, evidence of wall effect, cutmarks, weathering and signs of postdepositional arrangements.The analysis is based on contexts from the materials Hornborgasjön, Vedbæk, Skateholm I and II, Sjöholmen, Ertebølle, Bökeberg, Bredasten, Löddesborg, Bergsvägen and Röekillorna, dating from early Maglemose culture to Neolithic Battle axe culture.The analysis shows that a closer study of taphonomic processes can be used to identify different structures as graves, offerings, religious and non religious contexts or parts of animals, probably put into the ground as waste.

Zoo animals can be more or less disturbed by the presence of care takers as well as visitors. This may lead to stress and/or abnormal behaviour. The purpose with this study was to give a time budget of the behaviour of the captive wolves? (Canis lupus) and occurrence of behavioural disturbances and how this is affected of human visitors. For this purpose the wolves at Nordens Ark have been studied during off season as well as on season. The zoo Nordens Ark is an idealistic foundation which was founded in 1988 and is located at Åby säteri, 130 km north of Gothenburg.

This case study is based on a previous documented method of manufacturing artificial nest containing pre-colored hen eggs. This method is going to be used to find, if the wild boar population, which is growing in number, is a threat to the capercaillie population.  In comparison to the wild boar population, the capercaillie population is diminishing in different parts of Sweden.  In order to find out if they are affect by each other, the case study was carried out during the months of April to May 2009. 100 artificial nests were placed out on various locations on the Södertuna estate just in the outskirts of Gnesta. The unique aspect of this study is that a fenced environment to keep out wild animals is used to conduct this study, which has been previously known to be free from wild boar, but the area outside has sittings of wild boar. So to fully understand how this affects the capercaillie population, 50 of the nests were placed outside the fence area, while the other 50 nests were placed inside the fenced area. The sites were visited on two separate occasions, and were noted of the changes inside and outside the fenced compounds.