Otitis externa is a disease regularly encountered in veterinary practice. It is estimated to be the most common disease in the external ear canal of dogs and treatment is often delayed due to unfortunate pet owner ignorance. Owners tend to assume that scratching of the ears and head shaking are natural behaviours in their dog and may be neglecting the problem unknowing of how severe it actually is. A literature study has been carried out to examine the causes of otitis externa in order to present a collection of measures that can be used in the treatment and prevention of the disease. In turn these measures can be advised to the dog owner and used in the home environment to make the best qualifications for healthy ears in the dog. The causes of otitis externa have been divided into predisposing, primary, secondary and perperuating causes.

This is a study of the insect community associated to the wood-decaying fungus Inonotus radiatus found on Alnus glutinosa trees growing in riparian forests at the northern and southern shores of boreal lakes in the province Uppland. Little is known about this particular bracket fungus and its inhabitants. Insects were reared out at the laboratory from samples of fruiting bodies of the fungus taken at five lakes. During the fieldwork in 2009, data about several environmental variables was also taken. After the rearing period, these variables and their effects over the insects were analyzed.

The main purpose of this study was to determine the impact of bedding material on the faecal microflora of horses. Another objective was to investigate the hygienic and physical qualities of the bedding materials used and how these may change in the course of the trial period. The bedding materials used were sphagnum peat and wood shavings. Six horses had each material as bedding for a three week period in a change?over experiment.

Resin-top disease is a rust Fungi that occurs both as a host alternating form, Cronartium flaccidum G. Winter., and as a non-host alternating form, Peridermium pini Pers. The host alternating form can use a variety of hosts but the most commonly used species in the boreal forest is Melampyrum sylvaticum. In Scandinavia the Resin-top disease infect Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris L. The fungus infects the needles through the stomata and then grows through the branch to the stem where it strangulates the vessels transporting water and nutrition to the treetop, which kills the top.

It is important to know what is normal in the wound healing process in order to determine what happens when a wound does not heal as expected. If the amount of bacteria in the wound gets too large the body will not be able to defend itself and it becomes an infection. Colonization and infection are common elements in wound management and it is often the veterinary nurse role to deal with wounds in a proper manner. Antibiotics are drugs that either kill or inhibit the multiplication of bacteria or Fungi, and have been in veterinary medicine for approximately 60 years. Very few new antibiotics are introduced and increased resistance is a major problem that requires everyone to take responsibility to reduce the use of it.

Certain microbial residents from composts are known to possess the ability to suppress soilborne plant pathogens. Trichoderma spp. and Gliocladium spp. are commonly found in composts and are perhaps the most wellknown hyperparasites of fungal pathogens, which may also be naturally present in compost. Trials have many times proven them to be effective against plant diseases caused by soilborne pathogens such as Pythium spp., Phytophthora spp.

Various Fusarium species causes some of the most common cereal diseases worldwide. Besides the yield losses that can be a result of these diseases, strains from several Fusarium species can produce mycotoxins, some very toxic. The aim of this study was to investigate which Fusarium species and how many that occurred in winter wheat grains from Mälardalen and Kalmar län, if there was any difference in the distribution of Fusarium Fungi between the regions and the potential within species to produce mycotoxins belonging to the group trichothecenes. Winter wheat grains collected in 2009 from ten fields (unsprayed plots) in the two regions were analysed for Fusarium species. PCR was used to amplify the TEF region where after the samples were sequenced.

Powdery mildew is a serious problem in both field and greenhouse cucumber production and can cause serious infection and radically reduced yields. Today, powdery mildew is the main disease in greenhouse produced cucumber. Disease control should preferably be both efficient and environmentally friendly, which is not easy to achieve at all times. Alternatives to chemical control of powdery mildews are biological control, physical control, non-Fungicide control and cultivation of resistant or tolerant varieties. Biological control can be described as the suppression of damaging activities inflicted of a harmful organism by one or more other organisms, which are called antagonists or natural enemies. In Sweden, there are currently no registered biological control products available to control cucumber powdery mildew. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of two biological control products in order to evaluate their ability to prevent or reduce powdery mildew infection to an acceptable level in greenhouse produced cucumber. In the experiments, different application regimes were also studied.

The pathogenic fungus Rhizoctonia solani causes major economic losses for potato producers in Sweden. The producers, as well as advisors, have reported possible increases in severity of R. solani when free-living plant parasitic nematodes are present and active. There are several examples in the literature of interactions between pathogens where one, or both species, support or increase the damage made by the other organism. These complexes are important to investigate and to be able to forecast, since even low incidences of Fungi or nematodes may result in an interaction of significance.

Barley is one of the most important cereals cultivated in the Nordic countries. Climate change brings warmer and moisture climate which favors fungal diseases. In the cropland barley can be seriously infested with hard fungus attack. Since it is important that the yield bears a high quality it is of great importance to find varieties more resistant to attacks.Pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins are stress proteins induced in the plant in response to infection and abiotic stress (van Loon, 1997). PRs are shown to have antimicrobial activity differing between bacteria, Fungi and oomycetes (Tandrup Poulsen, 2001).

Barley is one of the most important cereals cultivated in the Nordic countries. Climate change brings warmer and moisture climate which favors fungal diseases. In the cropland barley can be seriously infested with hard fungus attack. Since it is important that the yield bears a high quality it is of great importance to find varieties more resistant to attacks.Pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins are stress proteins induced in the plant in response to infection and abiotic stress (van Loon, 1997). PRs are shown to have antimicrobial activity differing between bacteria, Fungi and oomycetes (Tandrup Poulsen, 2001).

Barley is one of the most important cereals cultivated in the Nordic countries. Climate change brings warmer and moisture climate which favors fungal diseases. In the cropland barley can be seriously infested with hard fungus attack. Since it is important that the yield bears a high quality it is of great importance to find varieties more resistant to attacks.Pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins are stress proteins induced in the plant in response to infection and abiotic stress (van Loon, 1997). PRs are shown to have antimicrobial activity differing between bacteria, Fungi and oomycetes (Tandrup Poulsen, 2001).

Optimization of soil tillage and crop rotation is important in many aspects, but particularly in maximizing profit margins. Since the economic outcome is usually decisive, it can be interesting to study different combinations of soil tillage systems and crop rotations in order to identify the maximum economic outcome. How a crop functions in a particular tillage system determines whether it is profitable to grow that crop. Different tillage systems affect the soil and its processes in different ways. Reduced tillage often works best on weak-structured heavy clays and on silty clays.

Many wood living insects are considered threatened by modern forestry due to the reduction in amount of dead wood. During the last decade various methods have been used to enhance the quantity of dead wood in managed forests. However little is known how and if these methods are aiding saproxylic insects. The threatened tenebrionid beetle, Upis ceramboides, is already extinct in southern Sweden. It develops in white rotted dead birch (Betula spp) and requires sun-exposed sites.

Since the 1950s, the development of modern rotation forestry in boreal Fennoscandia has resulted in a severe reduction of older forests, and a high degree of fragmentation among the small patches that remains of old forest. In Sweden, when performing conservation value assessments in order to identify and preserve the remaining forest habitats, the government authorities use to a significant extent a set of indicator species that indicate habitats of high biological conservation value. One species considered to indicate high conservation values in pine-heath forests is the red-listed ectomycorrhizal (EM) macroFungi Sarcodon scabrosus (Fr.) P. Karst. In the present study, the validity of using S.