This bachelor?s project deals with both the problems of high water temperatures in fishponds at a fish-breeding station and of the nutrient load to nearby lakes and streams in Harasjömåla, Blekinge, Sweden. Theory, methods and results of the analyses are presented in the report..

There are many theories why animals play but none have jet been proven. During observation on Canids, play seems to be important when they learn to control the intensity of the bite and to facilitate the social structure within a group. When dogs play they perform behaviours that otherwise are used during hunting, reproduction and aggression that in another context would be for example hostile. The dog is one of the species that we humans have domesticated and they have been exposed to an intense and concentrated breeding so they can function in different areas, for example herding and hunting. This breeding has resulted in that the pure bred dogs can be very different between the breeds.

In the beginning of the 1990?s ratite breeding for meat production was introduced in many European countries, including Sweden. The knowledge of ostrich farming and diseases of ratites is increasing internationally but is still often limited among veterinarians. This report consists of a literature study and a summary of pathology findings from ratites submitted for necropsy to the National Veterinary Institute (SVA) in Uppsala, during 1995 to 2001. The purpose is to give a general introduction to ostrich and ratite breeding and to give an overview of the most common diseases. The necropsy data from 1995 to 2001, indicate that many of the diseases are management related rather than caused by infectious agents. Due to cold climate ostrich breeders in Sweden need to supply well designed buildings and good care of the animal.

The ability of dairy cows to survive and the economic importance of this have been in-creasing in dairy cattle breeding lately. Increased longevity contribute to an increased pro-portion of cows that produce milk in more productive lactations and reduces the replace-ment costs together with a good health and fertility. Unfortunately it is often argued that longevity has been decreasing due to a strong selection for production traits in dairy cattle.The aims of this study were to find correlations between different longevity evaluations and between different estimates on longevity and other traits in the Nordic Total Merit (NTM) breeding value. The aim was also to compare different traits for cows of two differ-ent longevity groups.The data were Predicted Breeding Values (PBV) from Nordic HOL and SR bulls and records from Holstein (HOL) and Swedish Red (SR) cows estimated by the Swedish Dairy Association.The three Swedish longevity indexes were very highly correlated (>0.89) and the corre-lations between the Swedish official longevity index and the five Nordic Cattle Genetic Evaluation (NAV) longevity indexes varied between 0.73-0.83.In the sire evaluation part, the traits most negatively correlated with longevity for HOL were dairyness, protein and fat index. In SR, milk, protein, and fat index only had slightly positive correlations with longevity.

ABSTRACT Epilepsy describes a neurologically caused condition which involves seizures. Epilepsy can be classified according to different types of causes and the nature of seizures can vary. Medication for epilepsy in dogs is limited in comparison with human medicine. Idiopathic epilepsy is the most common neurological disease and one of the most common genetic diseases in dogs. Because epilepsy has a higher prevalence in certain breeds, there is reason to suspect that it is a hereditary disease. The inheritance of idiopathic epilepsy is for most breeds not determined, except for a few variants of the disease.

Rhodesian ridgeback is a dog breed that originates from southern Africa. The characteristic ridge (a dorsal ridge where the hair grows in the opposite direction to the general coat) is shared with an Asian breed, Thai ridgeback. The origin and inheritance of the ridge has been examined and defined. The ridge-mutation is a duplication that contains four complete genes, FGF3, FGF4, FGF19 and ORAOV1 and the 3´-end of CCND1. The ridge is inherited as an autosomal, dominant trait and predisposes for Dermoid sinus (DS), a disease that develops during embryogenesis.

More than 1000 Swedish Warmblood foals are shown every year at foal inspections which are arranged around the country. Six traits are evaluated at these inspections: type, head-neck-body, correctness of legs, walk, trot and canter. No previous genetic studies have been done on the data from these evaluations. The purpose of this study was to do genetic analyses of the traits which are evaluated at foal inspections. The purpose was also to see if there are any correlations between the results of the foal inspections and the results from the tests of three-year-old horses.

This essay describes and compares the extensive reindeer management to the more intensive, but grazing based, sheep management system in Sweden. Differences and similarities between the two production systems will be investigated by elucidating the economy, land use and possibilities to influence production and economy through breeding, feeding and product development. The reindeer management area covers the northern part of Sweden whilst the sheep management is dispersed over the country. Both reindeer and sheep are ruminants and have relatively high demands on the quality and digestibility of the feed however reindeers graze on mountain-and forest lands whilst sheep often graze inaccessible areas or cultivated grasslands. Selection intensity is generally lower in the reindeer management compared to the intensity in sheep breeding.

The Savi?s Warbler (Locustella luscinioides) is a recently established bird species in a few reedy shallow lakes of southern Sweden and has only been found nesting for the last twenty years. Little is known about the species' habitat preferences, breeding biology and demands for specific territory structures at breeding sites in Sweden. Knowledge of a newly established species? habitat requirements is essential to maintain a viable population and design action plans.

There is considerable variation between stallions in semen quality and fertility due to the fact that selection of stallions for breeding is not based on fertility or semen quality but on performance. The increasing use of cooled semen for artificial insemination has resulted in decreasing pregnancy rates. Therefore the equine breeding industry needs new methods for evaluation and development of sperm quality and fertility. This study is a part of such a project and is performed by SLU in cooperation with Flyinge AB. Ten stallions at the Flyinge National Stud were used in the study and three ejaculates were collected from each stallion.

Plagionotus detritus is a threatend longhorn beetle that only exists at one site in Sweden. It is saproxylic and depending on recently dead coarse oak wood for its larval development. Trees at Djurgården, Stockholm that have been colonized by Plagionotus detritus has been studied to find out the habitat preferences of the species and to see what affects the density of beetles in a tree. The bark of some trees and wood from the breeding project at Nordens Ark has also been studied to find out what affects the species reproductive success. The reproductive success was measured in two ways, the larval mortality and the size of the hatching holes.

Maternal behaviour is crucial for the development of the rat pups? behaviour and stressresponses later in life. There are numerous studies evaluating the effects of the dams?behaviours on the pups, but not many addressing what can be made for wellbeing of the ratdams when breeding. Few studies have addressed the question of how the commonly usedrearing environment effects the dams? behaviour and in the long run how it effect the ratsreared to become our research models.

The ability of a dog to perform some kind of practical work, for example hunting or herding, depends among other things on its behavioural characteristics. In animal breeding it is not always easy though to select for behavioural traits. It may, for example, be difficult to identify traits that are not only heritable but also of importance for the dogs' ability to perform the practical work of interest. Moreover, it is often difficult to accomplish accurate measurements of behavioural traits. When selecting dogs for breeding, it is usually preferable to evaluate them using an objective and standardized bahavioural test, rather than results from field trials.

This essay describes and compares the extensive reindeer management to the more intensive, but grazing based, sheep management system in Sweden. Differences and similarities between the two production systems will be investigated by elucidating the economy, land use and possibilities to influence production and economy through breeding, feeding and product development. The reindeer management area covers the northern part of Sweden whilst the sheep management is dispersed over the country. Both reindeer and sheep are ruminants and have relatively high demands on the quality and digestibility of the feed however reindeers graze on mountain-and forest lands whilst sheep often graze inaccessible areas or cultivated grasslands. Selection intensity is generally lower in the reindeer management compared to the intensity in sheep breeding.

The dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is the first species ever domesticated. They can develop a close bond towards other dogs, almost like a relationship among siblings, which can be a high valuable resource for good relations and cooperation?s. Dominance in dogs is sometimes used to explain undesired behaviors and explained as a personality trait. Dominance though, is not a trait in a dog or a source for undesired behaviors, but can rather be explained as a relationship between individuals, were one of them receives more submissive signals from the other.