In this final thesis a study about welfare indicators in the Swedish milk production has been carried out. The system Swedish Animal Welfare Monitoring Scheme developed by the Swedish Dairy Association has been used as a base and the EU project WELFARE QUALITY® has also been used as a source of information. Focus groups have been used as a qualitative investigating method. This included four focus groups, two with farm auditors from the two different dairies and two with dairy farmers. This method was chosen because in this way one can study how a conversation about a given subject takes form in a respectable way.

I sen dräktighet och vid laktationens inledning avger mjölkkor stora mängder kalcium till fostret och mjölkproduktionen. Kons förmåga att upprätthålla kalciumbalansen sker med hjälp av mobilisering av kalcium från skelettet samt upptag av kalcium från tarmen, mekanismer som regleras hormonellt, huvudsakligen av parathormon (PTH) och 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (calcitriol). Om kons regleringsmekanismer inte lyckas återställa kalciumkoncentrationen i plasma drabbas djuret av klinisk hypokalcemi som kan orsaka kalvningsförlamning. Flera olika strategier har etablerats för att förebygga denna utveckling. En väletablerad metod är lågkalciumdieten som syftar till att stimulera djurets metabolism för att öka aktiveringen av de endogena regleringsmekanismerna vilket resulterar i en bättre förmåga hos djuret att återställa kalciumförlusterna.

Denmark, Germany and Sweden are along with 24 other countries members of the European Union. Being part of the European Union also means being part of a European market. Within the union barriers for trade has been abolished in order to create more open market. This open market has also contributed towards a more globalized market for dairy products. What used to be a domestic market has become globalised with increasing trade among the members.

This study is an examination of the stadium fever prevailing in Sweden. It is built stadiums in Sweden as never before. The high cost of these constructions end up in the end at the Swedish taxpayers. The study examines through the hedonic pricing of real estate how local residents value the new stadiums. The result indicates that local residents put a positive value in the costly and sumptuous buildings.

Mastitis in dairy cows is an emerging and challenging disease in the tropics, including India. Nation-wide reports suggest that the incidence of clinical mastitis varies from 3.94% to 23.25%, and for subclinical mastitis from 15.78% to 81.60%. In Assam, a northeastern province of India, dairy is an essential part of the mixed farming system that exists in the state, but the milk yield is far below domestic standards. In 2009-2010, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and local associates started to develop a training program for local farmers in Assam, in order to enhance the informal bovine dairy sector in and around Guwahati, India. The project continued until mid-2013.

Dairy farming in Uganda provides a source of food, employment and income. Previous studies have revealed high frequencies of bovine mastitis, a costly disease for the dairy farmer. The aims of this study were to investigate the bacteriological panorama in milk from udder quarters with clinical (CM) and subclinical mastitis (SCM) and to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility in staphylococcal isolates. Further, we intended to establish the prevalence of subclinical mastitis and to investigate some environmental factors and animal properties that might influence the frequency of mastitis. For CM, farmers made contact with the members of this study when recognizing an animal with CM.

In developing countries such as Vietnam the population consumes more animal products for example milk and meat than before which requires greater livestock production. Ruminants contributes to more methane emission which creates a dilemma between food production and its environmental impact. By feeding ruminants with nutritive crops which humans can not assimilate the animal performance will increase in terms of better growth and milk production without inpinging on food that can be consumed directly by humans. Increasing animal performance reduces methane emission in terms of amount of methane in kg-1 milk and meat which today is much greater in developing countries than developed countries. The aim of the study was to investigate tropical tannin-rich legumes for their potential as a feed supplement for ruminants made in vitro.

Rift Valley fever (RVF) är en zoonotisk, vektorburen sjukdom som orsakas av ett Phlebovirus och sprids med hjälp av myggor. RVF är epizootiklassad och drabbar framförallt får, getter och nötkreatur varav unga individer är känsligast för infektionen. Symptomen utgörs av massiva aborter, hepatit, encefalit, hemorrhagisk feber och ökad dödlighet, särskild bland nyfödda djur. Den zoonotiska aspekten är framförallt av betydelse för djurhållare samt yrkesgrupper såsom veterinärer och slakteriarbetare. Denna litteraturöversikt syftar till att ge en överblick över utbredning, etiologi, patologi och epidemiologi samt besvara frågeställningen om en spridning till Europa utgör en risk. Sedan upptäckten i Kenya 1930 har flera ödesdigra utbrott skett i södra och östra Afrika.

As the world´s population increases and people's living conditions are improving, larger areas are needed for houses as well as food production. This means that new areas are exploited and that people, livestock, blood sucking insects and wild animals are forced to live close together. In combination with the global warming, leading to extreme weather such as floods and storms, this allows both new and old pathogens to emerge. The number of "emerging infectious diseases", EIDs, has increased in recent years and many of them have their origin in poor, tropical countries. Moçambique is therefore considered to be a high risk area for EIDs. Schmallenberg virus, SBV, was discovered in 2011 as an "emerging infectious disease" in dairy cows in Germany.

The probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri DSM17938 was evaluated as a starter culture in cheese production, with the intention to produce a new interesting product within the functional food market. Growth and acidification rate in milk subjected to different heat treatments, as well as supplementation with growth promoting factors or support cultures was measured during controlled fermentations. The results showed that the weak proteolytic activity of L. reuteri could be compensated for by supplementation with 1% casamino acids or 5% MRS broth. Furthermore, a decrease in growth and acidification rate could be seen when using yoghurt culture or Lactobacillus delbrueckii as adjunct cultures.

The purpose with this thesis was to form an opinion of how the animal welfare in Sweden is experienced by both farmers and animal inspectors. A great part of this work consists of an inquiry concerning the south and the middle of Sweden. We sent the inquiries to milk and meat producers and to animal inspectors. The response was high, which indicates that this is a subject that affects many people. Our literature study is mostly made on the library bases LIBRIS and LUKAS. The facts we found there were directed towards animal experimentation and furred animal breeding. In order to compare with earlier results we used investigations that had been made by Riksrevisionen 2003. There is a difference in opinions about the new Swedish animal welfare agency that started first of January 2004.

För att en mjölkko ska vara vid god hälsa och producera optimalt är det viktigt att hennes energimetabolism är i god balans. Förhöjda nivåer av ketonkroppar (?-hydroxybutyrat, acetoacetat och aceton) är en indikation på att störningar i energibalansen föreligger och har i flera studier kopplats samman med ökad risk för sjukdomar och sänkt mjölkproduktion. I veterinär ambulatorisk verksamhet används olika snabbtester för att enkelt påvisa förhöjda nivåer av ketonkroppar i mjölk, urin och blod.Syftet med denna studie var att utvärdera fyra snabbtesters tillförlitlighet för ketonkroppsdetektion hos mjölkkor, under svenska förhållanden, i jämförelse med en verifierad laboratoriemetod.Från 51 mjölkkor i olika laktationsstadier samlades blod-, mjölk- och urinprov. Förekomsten av ketonkroppar undersöktes med fyra olika snabbtester: Precision Xceed (helblod), PortaBHB milk ketone test (mjölk), Acetontest (mjölk) samt Ketostix (urin).

When rubber equipment in a milking system ages, physical and chemical deterioration occurs and cracks, crevices, as well as deposits of organic and inorganic material is formed on the surface. Bacterial colonization can accumulate, especially on ageing rubber equipment and if the cleaning procedure is not functioning properly. Formation of biofilm in milking equipment could in turn cause bacterial contamination of bulk tank milk. ATP bioluminescence is a fast and easy way to determine the hygienic status of a surface based on its ATP content, and results are given in relative light units (RLU). The method measures both bacterial contamination as well as residues from other organic material.

The aim of this undergraduate thesis was to formulate advices regarding the use of field beans, cultivated together with spring wheat, as whole-crop silage in feeding to dairy cows. In the thesis, optimal harvest time of the field bean/spring wheat crop, as well as the feeding value and the fermentation quality, was studied. On the research station at Röbäcksdalen in Umeå field bean/spring wheat (70 % respective 30 % of normal seed rate for the pure crop) and pea/oat (70/30) was grown in field experiments both 2002 and 2003. The following year, 2004, the pea/oat crop was excluded and instead field bean and spring wheat was cultivated in three different mixed ratios (field bean/spring wheat; 100:0, 70:30, 30:70). Every year the crops were harvested at four different development stages and the green forages were used in ensiling experiments.

The goals of this Bachelors? Thesis were to establish the production loss through the VTIS1 Pasteur at Arla Foods Linköping dairy and then suggest simple but effective solutions to minimize the losses for each production run. If the timeframe allowed it, some of the solutions would be implemented and tested in full production to determine their impact on economic and environmental savings.The very first step of this project was to establish the statistics over what losses there is in the production pipeline through VTIS1, from milk and powders in mixer tanks to finished and packed products in cold storage. Then, when knowing how much product was actually lost and where, those bottlenecks could be pinpointed and examined more closely. At this stage the focus was switched, from the otherwise complicated and broad manufacturing process, to the VTIS1-aggregate, since early data indicated there were quite substantial losses there.In conjunction with this project Arla Foods purchased an absorption photometer-measuring device (OPTEK AS16) that could be inserted straight into the product stream out of VTIS1, allowing real time measurements of its optical density.