Stereotypic pacing is frequently observed in captive carnivores, however the underlying causes of this behaviour remain somewhat unclear. One of these possible causes are unpredictable feeding signals, which may give rise to frustration and subsequent pacing. Animal keepers at Nordens Ark had noticed that their Amur leopards had shown stereotypic pacing in connection to the passing of ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) used by animal keepers primarly when feeding the animals in the park. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the stereotypic pacing of the two Amur leopards at Nordens Ark were affected by the introduction of a signal associated with feeding. The leopards were trained by classical conditioning to associate the sound of a siren with the delivery of food by an animal keeper.

Mjölksyrabakterier tillhörande släkten Lactobacillus och Bifidobacterium har nyligen upptäckts hos bin och i honungen de producerar och innefattar 13 nya arter[1]. Forskarna arbetar med att ta fram nya snabba och mer pålitliga identifierings metoder för att karakterisera dessa bakterier. I detta projekt undersöktes möjligheten att identifiera dessa bakterier med en ny metod som heter denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC). Metoden bygger på separation av PCR (polymerase chain reaction) amplifierade 16S rDNA fragment i DHPLC [8]. Vid identifiering av bakterier amplifierades olika variabla regioner från 16S rRNA genen, som påvisade efter sekvensering störst genetisk variation mellan dessa bakterier [1]. Separationen utfördes med ion-pair reverse-phase high presure liquid chromatoghaphy (IP RP HPLC) med delvis denaturering av DNA molekylen.

Vaccination of fish can be assumed to cause pain. This study was designed to see if we can minimize the suffering of fish following vaccination. Fishes are cold-blooded animals and thus more primitive than warm-blooded animals. Despite this, many organs, e.g. the nervous system, have the same basic structure as that of other vertebrates. The fibre system for conducting pain is more diffuse than in humans.

This work is intended primarily for animal nurses/veterinary technicians and describe parts of the rabbits digestive tract, causes of gastrointestinal disease, symptoms, diagnosis, general care of rabbits with gastrointestinal disease and how to prevent that gastrointestinal illness occur. The work is largely based on literature studies but also on a questionnaire sent out to rabbit owners to get answers on how they generally hold and care of rabbits, which gastrointestinal diseases that are most common, how owners care for their animals at home during illness and to examine if the owners think that the knowledge of this subject is good at his veterinarian/clinic.The purpose of this work is to improve the skills of animal nurses but also to improve the skills of owners through competent advice from animal nurses.The result show that gastrointestinal disease often is caused due to improper feeding and care of rabbits and therefore is advices from animal nurses an important part of preventive care. Animal nurses are also an important part of treatment of rabbits with gastrointestinal disease when supportive care as fluid therapy, supportive feeding and supply of a stress free environment is important for the animals to recover..

At present indoor tethering of dairy cows is still common but is not predicted to take part of modern dairy production. When conducting scientific studies of cattle it is generally necessary to tether the animals to maintain a controlled environment. Studies confirm that tethering and confinements of cattle severely affects the development of stereotypies in cattle. The feeding regime and feeding level have an immense affect on the stereotypi level in cattle. The aim of this experiment was to study dairy heifers that had never been tethered before the start of the experiment, to evaluate the affect of tethering on the development of stereotypies and the impact of the feeding regime on the behavior of the animals. Sixteen dairy heifers were tethered in a tie stall and divided in two groups with different treatments. Heifers in treatment E were fed restrictedly with silage and treatment EH was fed with the same amount of silage but also straw ad libitum.

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.

Good feeding practices are a basic aspect of good calf health. During the calf's first few months the calf is fed with purchased milk replacer or raw milk straight from the cow. On all farms, it will be a surplus of milk that may not be delivered to the dairy for various reasons. Milk that may not be supplied to the dairy includes colostrum and milk with unnormal properties, including milk from cows suffering from mastitis. This study investigated the possibility of improving the milk by pasteurization in order to secure its use as feed for calves and thereby obtain an improved calf health.

This work is intended primarily for animal nurses/veterinary technicians and describe parts of the rabbits digestive tract, causes of gastrointestinal disease, symptoms, diagnosis, general care of rabbits with gastrointestinal disease and how to prevent that gastrointestinal illness occur. The work is largely based on literature studies but also on a questionnaire sent out to rabbit owners to get answers on how they generally hold and care of rabbits, which gastrointestinal diseases that are most common, how owners care for their animals at home during illness and to examine if the owners think that the knowledge of this subject is good at his veterinarian/clinic.The purpose of this work is to improve the skills of animal nurses but also to improve the skills of owners through competent advice from animal nurses.The result show that gastrointestinal disease often is caused due to improper feeding and care of rabbits and therefore is advices from animal nurses an important part of preventive care. Animal nurses are also an important part of treatment of rabbits with gastrointestinal disease when supportive care as fluid therapy, supportive feeding and supply of a stress free environment is important for the animals to recover..

A Monte Carlo simulation of the ELECTRA reactor using (U,Zr)N fuel and a liquid lithium coolant is performed using the Serpent simulation code. The results show a reactor with a total reactivity coefficient of the coolant, fuel and material expansion that is strongly negative. These properties make the ELECTRA reactor a good candidate for a safe space reactor that could be used for propulsion of manned and unmanned space vehicles to Mars and other parts of our solar system..

Abstract The benthic macroinvertebrate fauna of 22 natural springs on Öland was sampled, by using a time-standarized kick/sweep sampling technique, in the end of September and early October. The aim was to determine the number of species and their abundances in the macroinvertebrate communities in springs and how/why these may change between different springs. Likewise there was a purpose to investigate possible differences between springs considering the proportions of the number of species and the abundances of the five functional feeding groups; shredders, collectors, filter-feeders, scrapers and predators. There was also an aim to investigate if the distances betweeen springs had any influence on similarity between the communities of benthic macroinvertebrates of the springs. Analysis from the springs collected material showed several interesting patterns in the number of species and their abundances when compared between springs devided into groups depending on their environmental factors such as depth and pH.

During one week (9-13 May, 2005) the use of veterinary diets for the hospitalised patients att the University clinic was registered. The animal owners were interviewed by telephone six months later about the feeding after coming home. Four out of ten animal owners answered yes to the question if the veterinarian had asked what food their animal normally consumed. Out of 35 animals, 15 (43%) were prescribed to a veterinary diet. Among cats it was 8 out of 14 (57%) and among dogs it was 7 out of 21 (33%). Four animals out of ten were recommended a veterinary diet when going home, but 20% did not follow the recommendation all the way through and stopped feeding their animal the veterinary diet. Reasons that were given was that the diet didn't last the entire period, that the animal didn't need the diet anymore according to the owner and one dog that became to lean when fed the diet. The diagnosis for these three dogs was vomiting, foreign body in the digestive system and bloody diarrhoea.

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.

Animal welfare is impaired if the diet does not provide sufficient feeling of satiety or the ability to perform natural feeding behavior. Pigs are omnivores and spend most of the day searching for food by rooting, grazing and chewing. Both inability to perform foraging behavior and insufficient feeling of satiety often leads to direction of foraging behavior towards stereotyped and abnormal oral behavior. Dry sows are often fed restrictively which leads to unsatisfied feeling of hunger. Dietary fiber has been found to reduce stereotypic and abnormal behavior as well as aggression, which could indicate that pigs need to forage has been met giving a feeling of satiety.

Animal welfare is impaired if the diet does not provide sufficient feeling of satiety or the ability to perform natural feeding behavior. Pigs are omnivores and spend most of the day searching for food by rooting, grazing and chewing. Both inability to perform foraging behavior and insufficient feeling of satiety often leads to direction of foraging behavior towards stereotyped and abnormal oral behavior. Dry sows are often fed restrictively which leads to unsatisfied feeling of hunger. Dietary fiber has been found to reduce stereotypic and abnormal behavior as well as aggression, which could indicate that pigs need to forage has been met giving a feeling of satiety.

Several factors affect the heifer´s growth and development, the newborn calf´s feeding of co-lostrum during its first hours of life is one important factor. The colostrum contains higher amount of immunoglobulins and insulin growth factors compared to matured milk. A high intake of immunoglobulins from colostrum results in a high blood concentration of immuno-globulins until the age of eight months. This leads to a lower incidence of diseases that can affect the growth and development negatively. Diarrhea is the most common disease in calves younger than 30 days.