Hepatitis E virus, HEV, is a frequent causative agent behind, especially waterborne, infections in developing countries such as India. However, during the last years the number of non-travel-associated infections in industrialised countries, for example US, Germany and Sweden, has increased. The symptoms vary from mild with nausea to icterus and it can even be lethal. There are four different genotypes of HEV and many studies consider HEV infection to be a zoonosis. Scientists have by using phylogenetic analyses found great genetic similarity between strains isolated from humans, pigs and food, such as pork and liver, especially among viruses belonging to genotype 3.

Det finns många olika typer av bromerade flamskyddsmedel. De är alla stabila i miljön men graden av toxicitet och bioackumulering varierar. Att bromerade flamskyddsmedel är endokrinstörande är känt men min hypotes är att de även är neurotoxiska och att de kan orsaka neurologiska störningar hos människa. Människor exponeras för bromerade flamskyddsmedel via damm och föda. Barn och foster som är känsligare än vuxna kan även exponeras via modersmjölk respektive placenta. Barn har högre serumkoncentrationer av bromerade flamskyddsmedel än vuxna.

Not available until 7 October 2015.

Virulent strains of Staphylococcus hyicus produce exfoliative toxins and cause a potentially fatal skin disease in piglets known as exudative epidermitis. Vaccines and antimicrobials are used to control the disease. Antimicrobial resistance and the prevalence of several different toxin genes and toxigenic strains make it problematic. The aim of this literature study was to identify potential differences between countries and between healthy and diseased pigs regarding antimicrobial resistance and toxin-producing strains. Great differences could influence vaccine production, treatment strategies and surveillance programs.

Virulent strains of Staphylococcus hyicus produce exfoliative toxins and cause a potentially fatal skin disease in piglets known as exudative epidermitis. Vaccines and antimicrobials are used to control the disease. Antimicrobial resistance and the prevalence of several different toxin genes and toxigenic strains make it problematic. The aim of this literature study was to identify potential differences between countries and between healthy and diseased pigs regarding antimicrobial resistance and toxin-producing strains. Great differences could influence vaccine production, treatment strategies and surveillance programs.

The aim of this thesis has been to examine how the risk for the swine flu was represented in the Swedish Radio news broadcast Ekot 16.45 during different phases of the pandemic in 2009. We wanted to study how the risk was described in different discourses and periods? Were the participants in the reporting calming or warning the listeners in relations to different aspects of the swine flu? What consequences for the community were reported in the broadcasting?To find the answers to our questions, we analysed 13 features about the swine flu broadcasted in Ekot?s main news broadcast Ekot 16.45. We used critical discourse analysis inspired by Norman Fairclough.We identified four types of discourses in our text, a journalistic discourse, a medical discourse, a nationalistic discourse and an authority discourse. The main discourse was the medical one.

This study had two different aims. The main aim was to investigate the dynamics and impact of African swine fever (ASF) on a farm in Uganda during a recent outbreak through a case study. The second aim was to estimate the presence of two important differential diagnoses of ASF: Classical swine fever (CSF) and Porcine Reproduction and Respiratory syndrome (PRRS).The field and laboratory based case study of the farm level dynamics of ASF virus during a recent outbreak (October-December 2010) on a farm in the district of Mityana, Uganda, was conducted, using interviews, ELISA and RT-PCR. The financial impact on the farm was also estimated. The impact of the outbreak was profound.

Various Fusarium species causes some of the most common cereal diseases worldwide. Besides the yield losses that can be a result of these diseases, strains from several Fusarium species can produce mycotoxins, some very toxic. The aim of this study was to investigate which Fusarium species and how many that occurred in winter wheat grains from Mälardalen and Kalmar län, if there was any difference in the distribution of Fusarium fungi between the regions and the potential within species to produce mycotoxins belonging to the group trichothecenes. Winter wheat grains collected in 2009 from ten fields (unsprayed plots) in the two regions were analysed for Fusarium species. PCR was used to amplify the TEF region where after the samples were sequenced.

African Swine Fever (ASF) is one of the most serious transboundary swine diseases because of its high lethality for pigs, socioeconomic consequences, rapid and international spread and the absence of either treatment or vaccine. This Sida Minor Field Study (MFS) was carried out during fall 2010, as part of a larger collaborative research project called ASFUganda, focusing on the epidemiology of the disease in Uganda. The aim with this study was to get more knowledge about the pathology in cases of ASF in Uganda, by studying macroscopic and microscopic lesions in pigs with acute and chronic ASF and to detect the ASF virus (ASFV) in tissues by immunohistochemistry. The pigs were selected from the two different geographical locations in Uganda, Mityana and Gulu district, both with on going confirmed outbreaks of ASF. Necropsies were performed in the field, and the laboratory procedures at the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Veterinary Pathology Laboratory, Entebbe, Uganda, and at the Department of BVF, SLU, Uppsala, Sweden. Three pigs from an outbreak of ASF in Mityana district showed both the history and the clinical symptoms typical for ASF.

Media has the power to influences society. Some call them the third power of a state. Through amongst others, the agenda setting theory and the framing theory, this report seeks to understand how media describes the swine influenza and how it uses its power to influence people to vaccinate. As this report will show, there is no doubt that media has had an impact on the Swedish population of which 60 per cent followed through with the vaccination. Media used an information discourse and attempted to present its articles in an impartial manner and used governmental authorities and experts to support its arguments.

This thesis deals with the importance of boar tusks to the people at the Middle Neolithic settlement of Ajvide, Eksta parish on Gotland. The thesis discusses various issues concerning the Ajvide swine and their tusks, such as the question of domestication and the various functions ascribed to tusks. In order to cast light upon these questions the result of a study of all the tusks found on Ajvide thus far as well as their respective grave context is presented. The study also includes an osteological analysis of the tusks. Furthermore, ethnoarchaeological comparisons are made with Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu; contemporary societies presumed to share common traits with Middle Neolithic societies on Gotland and where swine and their tusks likewise assume a prominent position..

Media has the power to influences society. Some call them the third power of a state. Through amongst others, the agenda setting theory and the framing theory, this report seeks to understand how media describes the swine influenza and how it uses its power to influence people to vaccinate. As this report will show, there is no doubt that media has had an impact on the Swedish population of which 60 per cent followed through with the vaccination. Media used an information discourse and attempted to present its articles in an impartial manner and used governmental authorities and experts to support its arguments.

Smallholder farmers in low-income countries face a number of challenges in animal production. Animal husbandry carries great potential in reducing poverty, hunger and gender inequality, but at the same time infectious diseases are prominent threats to farmers? livelihoods and their animals. The objective of this study was to investigate the socioeconomic impact of infectious animal diseases on smallholder farmers in low-income countries, using African swine fever (ASF) in Uganda as an example. The study was conducted in two parts. The first part of the study was questionnaire-based and performed in Gulu district, northern Uganda.

There are several reasons why organic chicken production is scarce in Sweden. Lack of slow growing (SG) strains combined with higher production costs, lower meat-yield and uncertainty of consumers? willingness to pay seems to be the main reasons. EU-legislations imply use of indigenous slow- or medium growing strains in organic production, nevertheless, fast growing (FG) broilers are often used due to their effectiveness. Increased consumption of processed food creates a market for conventionally rearing of very heavy broilers.

The present study aimed to replicate Tversky & Kahneman's' survey of 1981 The Asian Disease Problem. A survey was conducted on the Internet (N = 200). An identical problem was added, yet with The Swine Flu as the disease. This was done to be able to investigate if there are any order effects, and also if it matters whether the mentioned disease is fictional or real. The results show the same results as Tversky & Kahneman already noted; positively and negatively framed problems generate different responses from the participants.