Uppsats för avläggande av filosofie kandidatexamen iKulturvård, Landskapsvårdens hantverk, 15 hp, 2012.

This master thesis was conducted in order to investigate the effects of the browsing species Yeheb on animal tissues in Swedish landrace goats and to make a literature review in order to increase the knowledge of the importance of this plant for livestock production in Somalia. The evergreen Yeheb bush is a very important feeding source for grazing and browsing animals in Somalia during the dry period. Yeheb contains cordeauxiaquinone that stains the bones of the animals red/pink, which has been an increasing problem when exporting meat to foreign countries. In an experiment, two goats were fed dry and fresh leaves from the Yeheb bush for one and two months, respectively. The goats did not feed the intended amount of dry leaves, since the supply and palatability was not as high as estimated.

American bison (Bison bison bison) is a new species in Sweden and was introduced in the year 2000. In this study the result of an interview and a field investigation is presented. The aim was to investigate the health and parasite status in Swedish bison herds. The most common reason to begin with bison breeding was meat production and/or sale of breeding animals and tourism. The Swedish breeder?s experience of bison is that they in general are healthy.

Swedish goats are mainly held for cheese production and therefore, both milk quality and composition are of great importance for dairymen. Today, only few data exists on milk composition from Swedish dairy goats and the casein content is still unknown. One way to reduce the work load for goat farmers and increase animal welfare can be to keep goats and kids together for longer periods. The aims of this study were to investigate how milk yield and composition were affected when kids suckled their dams during 8 weeks, and to measure the casein content on farm level by a mid-infrared spectroscopy method, previously calibrated for goat milk. Lactating goats were kept in two different MIX- systems where the dams are both suckled and milked.

The purpose of this literature study was to describe the seasonal reproduction in sheep and the presence of genetic variation in fertility traits. Methods to induce oestrus are described and the possibilities to change the reproduction season through breeding are discussed. Sheep have a pronounced seasonality in their reproduction. Mating season starts in the fall and the lambs are born during the spring because this is the most beneficial time. The market request for lamb meat has increased and therefore it is desirable with ewes that could get pregnant all year round.

Rift Valley Fever (RVF) is a disease caused by Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV), which is an arbovirus. An arbovirus is a virus that is transmitted by an arthropod vector, in this case a mosquito. The virus is a member of the Phlebovirus genus in the family Bunyaviridae. It was first identified in the Rift Valley in Kenya in 1930. The disease is a zoonosis but mainly affects domestic ruminants inducing massive abortions and a high mortality among young animals.

The aim of this paper was to study incoming complaints to The County Administrative Board in Västra Götaland during 2011 and examine if it was possible to see a connection between warranted and unwarranted complaints and informer, animal species and type of inadequate. In Västra Götaland, a complaint is classified as warranted if the inspection leads to a reprimand, whether it regards what was reported or not. Data were collected during three weeks through The County Administrative Board´s record system Platina and a total of 456 complaints were studied. The parameter ?complainant? was categorized into four groups according to The County Administrative Boards own division; public with the subgroups anonymous and non-anonymous, animal health staff and others.

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.

Foot rot is a severe claw disease which occurs among sheep and goats in most parts of the world, with outbreaks in hot and humid weather. It is a contagious bacterial infection caused by Dichelobacter nodosus in association with Fusobacterium necrophorum. Foot rot has a negative impact on both animal welfare and economy.This thesis presents how Australia, Nepal, Norway, Switzerland, Great Britain, Sweden and Uruguay handle foot rot. In the selection of countries the focus was on countries that have control- or eradication programs against foot rot. There are differences in the climate, animal husbandry practices, animal welfare and economic resources in the countries that are presented.

Artificial insemination (AI) has had a great influence on the development of pig production and is today widely practiced (Gerrit et al., 2005). With AI, genetic progress can at a short period of time be spread worldwide compared with using natural service and the best boars can be intensively used. This is also one of the biggest risks with AI; the impact of semen containing a genetic disease or contamination of pathogens can be enormous. Fortunately, it is a small risk of disease transmission due to many tests of the boars and the semen before use (Maes et al, 2008). It is important that the boars used for insemination have good breeding values along with good reproduction features and have good fertility results (Robinson et al., 2005).

Tail-biting in pigs is an animal welfare issue and in Sweden during 2002 the producers lost tree million Swedish crowns because of tail biting. This economic loss depends on the pigs which are discarded at slaughter because of tail biting. Tail biting can be separated into two stages, "pre-injury" and "injury". The aim of this study is to investigate if tail biting depends on environment or genetic background.A lot of research on the environments effects on the behaviour of pigs but not so much on the genetic effects has been performed. The frequency of tail biting in pig farms influence among others of environment enrichment, ventilation, gender and breed of the pig.

This master thesis was conducted in order to investigate the effects of the browsing species Yeheb on animal tissues in Swedish landrace goats and to make a literature review in order to increase the knowledge of the importance of this plant for livestock production in Somalia. The evergreen Yeheb bush is a very important feeding source for grazing and browsing animals in Somalia during the dry period. Yeheb contains cordeauxiaquinone that stains the bones of the animals red/pink, which has been an increasing problem when exporting meat to foreign countries. In an experiment, two goats were fed dry and fresh leaves from the Yeheb bush for one and two months, respectively. The goats did not feed the intended amount of dry leaves, since the supply and palatability was not as high as estimated.

This master thesis was conducted in order to investigate the effects of the browsing species Yeheb on animal tissues in Swedish landrace goats and to make a literature review in order to increase the knowledge of the importance of this plant for livestock production in Somalia. The evergreen Yeheb bush is a very important feeding source for grazing and browsing animals in Somalia during the dry period. Yeheb contains cordeauxiaquinone that stains the bones of the animals red/pink, which has been an increasing problem when exporting meat to foreign countries. In an experiment, two goats were fed dry and fresh leaves from the Yeheb bush for one and two months, respectively. The goats did not feed the intended amount of dry leaves, since the supply and palatability was not as high as estimated.

Artificial insemination (AI) has had a great influence on the development of pig production and is today widely practiced (Gerrit et al., 2005). With AI, genetic progress can at a short period of time be spread worldwide compared with using natural service and the best boars can be intensively used. This is also one of the biggest risks with AI; the impact of semen containing a genetic disease or contamination of pathogens can be enormous. Fortunately, it is a small risk of disease transmission due to many tests of the boars and the semen before use (Maes et al, 2008). It is important that the boars used for insemination have good breeding values along with good reproduction features and have good fertility results (Robinson et al., 2005).

Detection of leukocytes in semen from boars is part of the routine control of semen quality. Leukocytes in semen can cause damage to spermatozoa that leads to impaired fertilization. In the artificial insemination (AI) industry there are standard routines for the quality control of the boars and of the neat semen before use. Since 2001, Quality Genetics has not done the leukocyte examination on semen samples from boars which are used for the production of pigs for slaughter. The purpose of this study was to investigate the occurrence of leukocytes in semen from AI-boars. The questions addressed were whether there are boars that have leukocytes in their semen and how frequently it occurs and, moreover, if there are differences between breeds, or even between individuals whose semen was checked before use in AI-dose production compared to those which were not. The study included a total of 135 AI-boars, of which 67 were Hampshire, 35 Yorkshire and 33 Landrace, all belonging to Quality Genetics AI-station in Hållsta.