The Swedish wolf population is like continue to grow and this will eventually lead to an increase in the predation of livestock. In Sweden carnivore attacks happen most frequent on sheep farms and the majority of these attacks are performed by wolves. Because of this, the main focus in this study is on the sheep and wolf problematic. It is not only the direct killing of livestock that affects the animals and their owners in a negative way. It has also been shown that livestock that lives close to carnivores sometimes change their behaviour in a way that will affect their ability to reproduce and to forage efficiently.

The alpaca is a camelid that originate from the South American highland. During recent years it?s been possible to keep alpacas in other parts of the world. Today there is a world-wide interest in alpacas, but there is still limited knowledge about this fascinating animal. There are approximately 350-400 alpacas in Sweden in 2007.

This essay deals with a picture-stone that was found in a pre Christian grave during the archaeological excavations of the Viking Age harbour and trading place at Fröjel parish, Gotland, in 1999. The stone is at least 100 years older then the male grave in which it was found. The picture-stone can be dated to  late 8th century or early 9th century, and the grave is probably from the late 10th century. One of the main questions in this essay is why the people of that time re-used an older picture-stone in a younger burial. I believe that the stone was reused as a grave-gift.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the electric solar potential on the Swedish island Gotland. The Gotlandic habitations have been divided into four house categories. For each category energy demand, roof area, geographic orientation androof tilt have been decided. Solar radiation data have been collected from the Swedish solar radiation model STRÅNG (STRÅNG, 2012).The buildings characteristics and the solar radiation have been used as input values in common solar formulas, the solar potential for each building category have been summed up to a total electric solar potential for the region.The electric solar potential on Gotland was calculated to 242 GWh/year with solar data from 2010. Gotlands largest city, Visby, is marked as cultural heritage by UNESCO (UNESCO, 2012).

During recent years the use of TMR (total mixed rations) has increased in Swedish lamb production. For many years TMR has been used for cattle and hence the information and knowledge is vast, while the knowledge concerning sheep and TMR is more limited. The aim of this thesis is to present an overview of the scientific knowledge on the subject, and also to compile practical experience from sheep farmers using TMR. The thesis begins with a literature review where different aspects relevant to the usage of TMR are dealt with. It is concluded that there are differences between sheep and cattle that must be taken into account.

Phytoestrogens are secondary metabolites produced by plants. Among the plants that make phytoestrogens are soya, red clover and some types of grass. The name phytoestrogen is a collective term for compounds such as genistein, daidzein, biochanin A and formononetin. These compounds are similar to oestradiol-17? in their chemical structure.

Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is a disease of major socioeconomic impact. It is an acute and highly contagious viral disease of small ruminants caused by the agent Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus (PPRV), a Morbillivirus closely related to Rinderpest virus (RPV) which was declared eradicated from the world in 2011. PPR has a high morbidity and mortality rate and is characterised by high fever, nasal and ocular discharge, pneumonia, necrosis and ulceration of the mucous membranes and inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract causing severe diarrhoea. The role of wildlife in the epidemiology of the disease is still unclear. The disease is currently affecting sheep and goat in 70 countries worldwide and this year (2014) FAO has announced a program to eradicate the virus by 2030. In Tanzania, the disease was first reported in 2008 and has since then spread to different parts of the country.

Generally in Macedonia keeping farm records and farm business planning is not often practiced like an ordinary activity in farming. Therefore one of the crucial things to do it is to comprise and continuously practice record keeping of farm data. The efficient and justified farm business planning should be based on farm records about the previous work of the farm, which will bring a structured approach for planning all the activities, as well as provide a good basis for attracting investors and creditors for the additional expansion of the business.Given that sheep breeding holds an important part of the livestock production in Macedonia, there is a need for adding analytical sheep enterprise budgets to support the farm business planning process at sheep farms.The aim of this research was to develop sheep enterprise budgets created on the best production practice for Macedonian conditions of breeding and test their applicability into the farm business plan model Agriwise Macedonia. The sheep budgets were composed with a process of data collecting consisted of direct farm data (for the cases), expert's consultation and relevant desk research, as well as a literature study. The aim of doing it was to attain more accurate calculations of the enterprise budgets, which will result in a more precise outcome in the farm business plan model Agriwise Macedonia.

This one-year master's thesis investigates the late part of the Middle Neolithic on the island of Gotland. This thesis has been written without the influence of a singular theoretical pespective, and has therefore seen input from the processual, and postprocessual theories. By using several perspectives, an attempt is made to view the material remains used in the most objective manner possible. The specific aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the Mid-Neolithic inhabitants of Gotland were a part of the Corded Ware culture (or as it is called in Sweden, the Battleaxe culture or the Boataxe culture). Most recent literature has concluded that Gotland was never a part of the Battlexe culture, though this thesis has discovered many parallels with the mainland culture, including the production of similar objects and ritual practices.

Scrapie is an infectious neurologic disease in sheep caused by prions, corresponding to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in other species. The prion is presumably constituted of PrPSc, the misfolded form of the normal endogenous prion protein, PrPC, which is found in practically all cells in the body. PrPSc can induce a conformational change in PrPC and misfold it as an imprint of itself; this is how prions amplify and spread. The process of conformational change is poorly understood and there might exist intermediate forms between PrPC and PrPSc. Bioassay using mice has traditionally been the golden standard in prion studies but is limited by cost and time.

To produce fine fibre wool as a complement to lamb meat production, Merino and Svea sheep are currently being crossbred in the county of Jämtland. The aim of this study was to evaluate growth and wool quality of the first crossbred lambs. In addition, a literature study about nutritional effects on wool production has been carried out. The literature study showed that fine fibre wool should foremost be achieved through directed breeding. Nutritional requirements of the sheep at different stages of production should determine their feeding.

This bachelor-level thesis in historical osteology deals with several aspects of the life-cycle of an RomanIron Age farm in southern Scania. Excavated in the 1980's by Lars Larsson, the farm was located near aplace called Långåker in the Dybäck area, on a cape which stretched out into a minor bog. Our work concerns why the Iron Age people settled the area, how well fragmented bone survives in a bog, what they produced at the farm and how life on the farm finally ended. From the roughly 10 % of the total number of fragments we where able to identify we can conclude, that he species that are present of the farm areusual Iron Age species (dog, sheep/goat, cattle and swine). We also have a relitivly large number of wildanimals in our material (2%).

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.

Schmallenberg virus (SBV) is a novel arthropod-borne orthobunyavirus emerging in Europe in 2011 to 2012. Acute SBV infection causes diarrhoea, fever and reduced milk production in dairy cattle, but it is mainly the reproductive disorders (abortions, malformed foetuses and stillborn animals) in ruminants that have caused substantial economical losses. The prevalence of the virus outside of Europe is poorly investigated. SBV or SBV-like antibodies were detected in Mozambique in 2013, which raised interest for a similar study in Tanzania. In this study in Tanzania, blood samples were collected from 478 sheep and goats from 39 herds in 15 different villages in three districts, covering areas in the north, south and east of Tanzania. The epidemiology of the virus was investigated by tracing antibodies by ELISA and mapping of the virus by PCR was started.

To differentiate between bones from sheep (Ovis aries) and bones from of goats (Capra hircus) is a long lasting challenge for zoologists, archaeozoologists and osteologists. Especially considering archaeological remains which are often found fractured and poorly preserved due to taphonomic processes. Zeder & Pilaar?s (2010) and Zeder & Lapham?s (2010) methods of species differentiation has shown promising results when used on bones from modern sheeps and goats. This paper aims to evaluate these methods by exerting them on excavated bones from kv.