There are several factors influencing the profitability of production with sheep. Two of the most important factors are ewe fertility and lamb survival. Also growth capacity of the lambs is important. This paper aims to review correlations between the ewe?s fertility and maternal behavior and lamb survival.

Every now and then, in media research studies and in various newspaper articles, schoolboys´ issues reading habits are discussed. Much of what is written concerns boys decreasing marks in the field of literature, in the Swedish language and also their negative attitude towards reading books. Some scholars claim that boys do not read because they consider reading books as a women´s duty. Other people believe that underlying causes for boys negative attitude towards reading is biological, that it´s Genetic and consequently physical, and that male and female brains are functionally different. Another theory of today is that boys actually reads, but not that kind of texts and literature that they are exposed to in school.Based on a selection of these opinions and theories, and my own experience and interest for questions concerning school and gender, the aim of this studie was to examine boys worlds of reading.

Behavioral problems are one of the leading reasons for re-homing and euthanasia in dogs. It is estimated that between 40 ? 87 % of dogs suffer from some sort of behavioural problem, making it an important animal welfare issue. Separation anxiety is one of the most common behavior problems encountered in dogs after problems related to aggression. This thesis is aimed at examining the etiology behind separation anxiety related behavior in dogs based on existing literature as well as comparing and evaluating the efficiency on suggested treatment protocols.

This project was initiated by a veterinarian, that at stallion performance tests for breeding during a number of years, noted breed differences in various types of testicular disorders. Therefore it was of interests to examine the proportion of testicular disorders within certain breeds. The aim with the project was in a first part to study cryptorchidism in common horse breeds in Sweden. Information about castrations of stallions performed during a 10 year period (2000-2009) was collected from computerized case records at five animal hospitals. The case records showed the numbers of castrations, normal cases and cases preformed on stallions with cryptorchidism, abdominal respectively inguinal.

The ability to tackle NP-hard problems has been greatly extended by the introduction of Metaheuristics (see Blum & Roli (2003)) for a summary of most Metaheuristics, general problem-independent optimisation algorithms extending the hill-climbing local search approach to escape local minima. One of these algorithms is Iterated Local Search (ILS) (Lourenco et al., 2002; Stützle, 1999a, p. 25ff), a recent easy to implement but powerful algorithm with results comparable or superior to other state-of-the-art methods for many combinatorial optimisation problems, among them the Traveling Salesman (TSP) and Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). ILS iteratively samples local minima by modifying the current local minimum and restartinga local search porcedure on this modified solution. This thesis will show how ILS can be implemented for MSA.

Animal welfare is of increasing concern in present society. In commercial pig farming, animal welfare problems are common. One of the causes for these problems is the barren environment in which pigs are housed, which can cause oral manipulation of pen mates. Providing straw might be one solution to this problem. Another solution could be reached through Genetic selection.

The increased frequency of reported Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) is of great concern to small animal healthcare due to limited options of antimicrobial therapy. The aim of this literature study is to investigate 1) characteristics and classification of S. pseudintermedius, 2) resistance mechanisms and emergence of MRSP, 3) risk factors for selection of MRSP, and 4) clonal distribution around the world. S. pseudintermedius is a skin and mucosal commensal in healthy dogs and cats, but can cause infections, including pyoderma. Beta-lactam antibiotics inhibit bacterial growth by binding to the penicillin binding protein (PBP), a vital enzyme in the synthesis of the bacterial cell wall.

A survey was undertaken to understand sheep management, breeding practices and selection criteria for Red Maasai sheep in Maasai pastoralist communities in Kajiado District, Kenya. Differences between North and South Kajiado District were investigated to gain knowledge about farmers having different prerequisites and how it can affect the sheep production. The reason for keeping sheep and the specific breeds show the multiple objectives of the Maasai farmers. Adaptive traits, such as resistance to diseases and droughts, and productive traits, such as increased growth and carcass weight, were both ranked highly. In addition to this, the sheep has a social and traditional value in Maasai culture.

The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable molecular-Genetic method to determine the different species of helicobacter in dogs. The study is part of a larger project to map the prevalence of Helicobacter spp in healthy and sick dogs in Sweden, and to determine the possible connection of Helicobacter spp infection with gastrointestinal diseases in dogs. Several published studies have reported on the prevalence of Helicobacter spp in dogs. The problem is that three of the most common species are so alike that a 16SrRNA-PCR with sequencing is not able to differentiate between them. In this study, DNA has been purified from samples and then a Multiplex PCR has been performed. Multiplex PCRs use multiple primers in one single PCR.

Sahlgrenska Academyat University of GothenburgDepartment of Internal Medicin and Clinical NutritionAbstractTitle: Does supplementation of omega-3 during pregnancy affectprevalence of allergy in infants and children?Author: Peter Eliasson, Anna RahmSupervisor: Lena HulthénExaminer: Anna WinkvistProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 ECTSType of paper: Examination paper, 15 ECTSDate: 2012-04-12BackgroundEpidemiologic research has shown an association between a high intake of fish and allergy.The underlying theory is that allergy develops already at a prenatal stage and food intakeduring pregnancy has been shown to be significant. Conducting research on allergy isproblematic since it has Genetic, as well as enviromental, determinants.ObjectiveThis thesis attempts to conclude and evaluate research on a connection betweensupplementation of omega-3 during pregnancy and allergic outcomes in infants and children.Search strategyThe literature search was conducted in the databases PubMed and Scopus. Among thekeywords chosen were omega 3, supplement, pregnancy and allergy.Selection criteriaHuman RCT, that measured allergy, where the intervention consisted of supplementation withomega-3 for at least ten weeks during pregnancy and ceased at birth.Data collection and analysisThree articles were chosen for this thesis. The articles were examined using templates fromSBU and the quality of evidence was evaluated according to GRADE.Main resultsNone of the articles showed a protective effect on allergic outcome but in one of the studiesthere was significant reduction in eggallergy and another showed significant lower occurrenceof severe eczema.ConclusionsSupplementation with omega-3 during pregnancy does not occur to have an protective effecton allergic outcome in infants and childen but the evidence for this is considered to bemoderate.

Sammanfattning I september 2008 fångades 311 juveniler (unga individer) av arten sill (Clupea harengus) in vid fyra olika områden på den svenska västkusten; Råssö, Hunnebo, Askerö- och Gullmarfjorden. Genetiska, kemiska och morfologiska data (längd och vikt) samlades in i syfte att bestämma vilka populationer de härstammade ifrån. Fångster av sill är så gott som alltid av blandat ursprung eftersom individer bara samlas i de populationer de stammar ifrån vid den tid på året då det är dags för parning (lek). I den här uppsatsen klassificerar jag juvenilerna till tre regioner i vilka populationerna ingår, genom att jämföra de data som samlats in från juvenilerna med motsvarande data i en stor databas över populationer i Nordsjön, Skagerrak, Kattegat och Östersjön samt med ytterligare en population, Risør, som inte ingår i denna databas. Data om populationerna kommer från samples och de sanna populationsparametrarna (dvs.

Ataxi är då hunden har svårt att koordinera sina rörelser och orsakas av att nervsystemet inte fungerar som det ska och degenereras. Degeneration av cerebellum och då specifikt purkinjecellerna och granulacellerna ger en form av ataxi kallat cerebellär ataxi. Denna typ av ataxi uppvisas genom att hunden (Canis lupus familiaris) står bredbent, har muskelkramper, obalanserad gång och ögonrullningar. Den genetiska bakgrunden till cerebellär ataxi hos hund finns beskriven hos flera raser, däribland beagle, finsk stövare, old english sheepdog, gordonsetter och coton de tuléar. Hos alla dessa raser nedärvs sjukdomen autosomalt recessivt och de orsakande mutationerna ger olika dysfunktioner inom nervcellerna som gör att de inte kan fungera som de ska och degenereras.

Med genteknik är det möjligt att ändra gensammansättningen i våra livsmedel och applikationen har väckt stort intresse, inte minst bland allmänheten. Genmodifierade (GM) livsmedel har varit föremål för diskussion sedan 1970-talet. Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera olika uppfattningar och representationer om genmodifierade livsmedel. Enligt teorin om sociala representationer har representationer dubbla funktioner. Den ena är att konventionalisera objekt och den andra innebär att representationerna intar en förutbestämd form.

Multiple Congenital Ocular Anomalities (MCOA) is a Genetic disease that affects primarily Silver coloured horses of breeds such as the Rocky and Kentucky mountain horses. In these breeds the Silver dapple colour is very popular leading to an increase of affected horses. The major feature of the disease is ocular cysts of variable size. Large cysts also lead to a variety of secondary syndromes, for example retinal detachment. In previous studies the locus for MCOA has been mapped to an interval of 420 kb on equine chromosome six.

The aim of the project was to investigate if Swedish rodents, brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), house mouse (Mus musculus), wood mouse (Apodemus spp) and water vole (Arvicola terrestris) captured in pig herds and in urban areas, constitute a reservoir for pathogenic Leptospira spp. Under Swedish conditions leptospirosis gives rise to reproductive disorders in pigs and symptoms of flu in humans. It has long been established that rodents are chronic carriers of pathogenic leptospires in their kidneys, and can spread the bacteria with urine. The old nomenclature of serovoars is still in use, but a new system of Genetic classification has developed and today the genus Leptospira contains 17 species. There are several diagnostic test developed for leptospirosis.