In order to optimize calf welfare and health it is important to know the behavior of cattle in free ranging conditions. When the cow is about to give birth to a calf she will leave the heard about 12 hours before. It is then rather obvious that isolating the cow about calving time in a single pen is imitating the cows? natural behavior. To save space and minimize building cost it?s common that the farmers build calving pens for four of five cows especially at larger farms.

Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical NutritionAbstractTitle: Can probiotics prevent atopic dermatitis in children with high risk?Author: Laura Pienihäkkinen and Max OlinSupervisor: Heléne Bertéus ForslundExaminer: Anna WinkvistProgramme: Dietician study programme, 180/240 ECTSType of paper: Examination paper, 15 hpDate: May 22, 2012Background Allergic disease is today common, this including atopic dermatitis, which is the most common inflammatory skin disease in the world. Heredity has been shown to play a major role in the development of this disease. It is therefore of high interest for both the individual and society to find effective methods for preventing atopic dermatitis in individuals with high risk profile. Probiotics are beneficial for the bacterial profile in the intestine and it is therefore of interest to study if they through their anti-inflammatory effect could prevent atopic dermatitis.Objective The aim was to study whether administration of probiotics to the mother and the child (directly or via breast milk) could prevent atopic dermatitis in children with high risk profile (at least one first degree relative with a diagnosed allergic disease).Search strategy A systematic literature search was done in databases PubMed and Scopus with search terms maternal, prenatal, probiotics, allergy, atopic dermatitis, prevention, and children.Selection criteria Randomized, controlled human studies and original articles in English were included.

Uganda is one country with fastest growing populations in the world and with more than 25% of the population living in poverty. There is a rapid rural urban migration with increasing demands for food for low income earners especially in these areas. One way to mitigate food insecurity is to increase milk and meat production efficiency, and thus reproductive performance of cows is crucial for good production. A well-documented strategy for improving dairy cow productivity through faster genetic improvement is to breed dairy cows using proven semen via artificial insemination (AI). AI has been used in Uganda for over 60 years but only less than 10 %, a small population of the country?s herd has been bred that way. The aims were to study knowledge, attitude and practices factors influencing cow fertility results on dairy farms around Kampala using AI and to propose ways of promoting increased use of AI in Uganda.

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to give an overview of the evidence for genomic imprinting in livestock and other mammals as well as outline the potential use of gene imprinting in livestock breeding. Epigenetics is the mitotical and meiotical partial hereditary variation in genomic activity without any alterations of the DNA sequence. An example of epigenetic regulation is genomic imprinting where one allele?s expression differs depending on which parent it was inherited from. These parent-of-origin effects are currently overlooked in livestock production.

Afrikansk svinpest är en av de allvarligaste grissjukdomarna och är på frammarsch i östra Europa. Under 2000-talet har det oerhört tåliga afrikanska svinpestviruset med hög morbiditet och mortalitet spridits från Afrika till Kaukasusregionen och angränsande europeiska länder där den utgör en stor risk för den globala grisindustrin. Sjukdomen är ingen zoonos men eftersom det saknas vaccin och behandling har den en stark påverkan på människor rent socialt och ekonomiskt när deras grisar drabbas. Sjukdomsutbrott leder till minskad internationell handel, kostsamma kontrollstrategier för att stoppa utbrott och stora förluster för småskaliga bönder. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie är att utvärdera huruvida europeiska vildsvin kan bli ett hot mot grisproduktionen i Sverige.

During the last year?s Swedish agriculture have had difficult times, with decreasing prices and at the same time increasing production costs, which has led to bad profitability and faith in the future. The dairies in Sweden have also had a rough time and there have been large rationalizations during the years. In the beginning of the 20th century there were almost 1700 diaries in the Swedish countryside. There has been a large technical development during the 20th century resulting in a decrease in diaries to only 46 in the whole country today. They are owned by 15 diary companies, of which 7 large and dominate on the market and the rest are small-scale companies. With this development the confidence and feeling for the diary companies also has decreased.

During natural conditions cattle live in large herds, which are divided into subgroups of 10-15 animals. Humans have held cattle for over 9000 years. Today we mostly have cows for milk and meat production during more or less intensive forms. Most of the Swedish cattle have the opportunity to graze during the summer time. This partly arises from the Swedish Animal Protection law which stipulates that cattle must have the option to be outside and graze, also partly because it makes it easier for the farmer.

Problems with wild boars are increasing in Sweden and some people argue that the wild boar population must decrease. This is mostly the opinion by farmers, while the hunters want more wild boars in Sweden. Today the population is the strongest in the south of Sweden and in the eastern parts of the country. However the population is growing stronger in other parts of Sweden as well. The population origins from these areas where they escaped from pens around 1970.

Oestrus in dairy cattle has changed over the last decades, the duration has decreased and the intensity of oestrus has declined. A possible explanation can be their high and increasing milk production. Heifers ability to show oestrus is probably not affected to the same extent. The aim of this study was to estimate and compare oestrus duration and strength in heifers of the Swedish Red and Holstein breeds. Standing oestrus has been the primary oestrus sign during many years.

The task of making a correct application for B- activities is the foundry time consuming task. Information and facts concerning your entire business activity shall be attached into a description of environmental consequences, which will be the basis for the decision making whether the activities shall be granted a permission to practise environmentally hazardous actions or not. When the Environmental Act were established 1999, the permission process became more extensor. With this study I want to give an insight about how these applications are made. The methods I have used to collect information are a study literature where the Environmental Act has been the focus, and qualitative interviews with two County Administrative Board. I used the Environmental Act to understand why permission is needed and the interviews to give me insight in how the work is done. My conclusion is that it is very unusual that an application is granted without complements.

The Baltic Sea, due to its special conditions, is a unique and vulnerable marine environment. There are many pressures that have an impact on the sea and one of the major problems is the extensive flow of nutrients from land. The most visible effect of the supply of nutrients is the annual algal blooms. One of the main sources of nitrogen and phosphorus supply is agriculture. Nutrient losses from arable land have been increasing as agricultural production has intensified. At the end of the twentieth century an increased awareness of these problems led to the formation of organizations such as HELCOM and Baltic 21.

The structural rationalization of the agricultural sector in Sweden has led to many expansive, professional companies orientated towards growth. The agricultural sector is a very capital-intense sector and is characterized by the need for large sums of capital in form of buildings, inventory and arable land. The capital need is especially large for companies who have an ambition of growth and development of the company in the near future. The study is built upon six cases that all can be categorized as large agricultural farms with a turnover exceeding 20 million Swedish crowns. The companies are located in the middle and in the south of Sweden and are in the sector of primary production with focus on dairy-, pork-, egg-, chicken-, beef-, vegetables- and grain production as well as in the business of refining milk towards consumers. The study aims to identify the motives and driving forces that lies behind the growth of a farm-based company. The agricultural companies' motive for growth is studied based on which factors that influence the ambition to grow and to what extent these factors accord to the picture given by earlier research of small companies outside the agricultural sector.

Field balances based on supply and removal of trace elements from the topsoil have been calculatedfor farms specialized in crop, dairy and pig production in Sweden. Today's field balances have beencompared with the field balances of 1990 in order to examine if, and then how, the situation haschanged. Studied trace elements are arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu),mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn).The balance calculations show that the stores of Cu and Zn are depleted with an average rate of -15% and -6 % over a 100-years period on crop farms when only commercial fertilizers are being used.The concentrations of Hg and Pb tend to increase in the topsoil on crop farms with more than 3 % forHg and with 2 % for Pb in 100 years. There is today balance between supply and removal of the traceelements As, Cd, Cr, Mn and Ni. In the south of Sweden, on crop farms with sugar beets in the croprotation, one can see a decrease in the concentration of Cd in the top soil by -6 % over a period of100 years.

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) has for many years been used in products to reduce their flammability, mainly in electronic products, textiles and construction materials. In 2003, Sweden imported 300 tons of brominated flame retardants. Leakage of these compounds has polluted natural environments. Fishes has shown increased contents of these substances, especially fat fish, since brominated flame retardants tends to accumulate in fatty tissues. They are also regarded as persistent and that gives them the ability to travel long distances. What also is really scary is that increased levels of brominated flame retardants have been detected in human breast milk. The knowledge of the brominated flame retardants is limited and not so much research has been done in this field. There are many reasons though, to keep the research going. Partly their structural resemblance to well-known toxics as PCB, but also their ability to accumulate in biological systems and enrich in food chains. In which way they affect humans we really don?t know yet.

Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas (GHG) that contributes to the global warming. One of the largest sources of methane is livestock, preferably ruminants which alone counted for 30% of the total agricultural anthropogenic methane emissions in the year of 2000. The reason to why ruminants are such large contributors of methane are that the gas is produced in the rumen by enteric formation and leaves the animals by belching, exhaling or by the excreta.Diets high in concentrates can result in a lower emission of methane. Also diets with a high content of starch, such as alfalfa-grass, have a methane-decreasing. It is profitable to reduce enteric methane formation since that form of methane is unavoidably lost.