Animal-assisted therapy had its large breakthrough in the 1960-ties when a psychiatrist named Boris Levinson discovered the great advantages of involving animals in the treatment of patients. Therapy with animals involves that animals are used in a systematic way, in a person's process of treatment. The most distinguished companion animal used within this area is the dog, but horses, cats, rabbits, birds, dolphins and the most common farm animals are used in animal-assisted therapy. Most animals that are to be used for this specific purpose need to be trained in order to maintain their physical and mental health, but also to minimize the risks for the people that are involved. Most studies within this research area are focused on the positive effects on the patients and less on the effects on the animals.

The veterinary handling of wildlife, both in zoos and in the wild, commonly requires that the patients need to be captured and immobilized for examination or treatment. This emphasises the need for quick, on-site, laboratory equipment, in order to minimize the analysis time and thus the stress for the animal and also in order to increase the possibility of starting relevant treatment early on. The aim of this pilot study was to determine whether Serum Amyloid A (SAA) could be a measured in blood samples from bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) and South American tapirs (Tapirus terrestris). SAA rises to its maximum about 24 hours after the introduction of an inflammatory agent in companion animals. This also correlates with the estimated time it takes for animals at Kolmården Wildlife Park to be examined and having blood samples collected after being observed as sick. The study also evaluated whether the Eurolyser SOLO, using a turbidometric immunoassay (TIA) developed for human diagnostics, could be used for such analysis. This pilot study was a retrospective analysis of SAA in convenience sampled frozen serum, collected from dolphins, elephants and tapirs.

On the 12:th of April 2011, the Swedish tabloid magazine Expressen publishes a story, claiming that Ola Lindholm, presenter of critically acclaimed TV-show ?Wild Kids? has been suspected and apprehended on cocaine allegations. The serious allegation called for Ola Lindholm to defend himself against the allegations. His only public response was a blog-post where he claimed his innocence, albeit with some reservations.  The purpose of this paper is to analyze Lindholm?s rhetorical defense.

The European bison is a species which is no longer present in the wild fauna of Sweden. Reintroduction has been proposed in several different forums. Reintroduction is an attempt to reestablish a viable population of a species in an area to which it is native. To make such an operation successful in the long run it is essential to know the attitudes of the stakeholders involved. This study has sensed the attitudes towards reintroduction of European bison to Sweden.

Borna disease virus (BDV) is a virus with capability to cause neurological disease in several species of mammals and of ostriches. Also humans are suspected to be susceptible to the virus, as the viral RNA and antibodies against BDV have been found in some humans with psychiatric diseases, like schizophrenia and depression. In Sweden there is a disease called staggering disease in cats, associated to BDV-infection. This disease often has a fatal progress. Definite diagnosis is reached by histo-pathological and immunohistochemical examination of the central nervous system.

Tripeptidyl peptidase II (TPPII) is an exopeptidase which cleaves tripeptides from theN-terminus of peptides. The exact functional role of TPPII is still a matter of investigation. Itis believed that the enzyme is primarily involved in intracellular protein degradation, where itcooperates with the proteasome and other peptidases to degrade proteins into free aminoacids. These amino acids can subsequently be used in the production of new proteins. The aimof this work was to express murine wild type TPPII using E.

Plesiomonas shigelloides is a gram-negative, oxidase-positive rodshaped bacterium of the family Enterobacteriaceae. P. shigelloides is most frequently isolated in tropical and subtropical areas, but has also been isolated in colder areas for instance in Sweden. The primary natural habitat of the bacterium is fresh water and indirectly waterliving animals, but the bacterium can also be recovered from humans, mammals (of which cats are over-represented), birds, insects and poikilothermic animals. P.

This master thesis deals with questions concerning facts and fiction in the world of Beatrix Potter's rabbits. The purpose is first and foremost to find the connections between the pet rabbits, that she used as art models, and the rabbits that came to life through her "tales".The method has been to gather facts through biographic reading, and to analyse Beatrix Potter's rabbit tales, using tools developed by Swedish picture book experts. The rabbit characters are thoroughly examined and so are the settings where the tales take place. Matters concerning Beatrix Potter's painting technique and illustration style as well as her literary and pictorial inspirations are dealt with.Conclusions are, that the fictive rabbit characters have indeed a lot to do with the fact that Beatrix Potter was interested in natural history and studied animal behaviour and anatomy in detail. For a long time rabbits, both wild and domesticated, were her favourite study objects which provided conditions for her rabbit fantasies.

This thesis discusses the dress code during the Pitted Ware culture on the Swedish island of Gotland. Eight Pitted Ware grave-fields have been analyzed; only 74 skeletons have been identified with some sort of ornament that could have been attached to clothes. The grave-fields are rich in finds and in people nearly every age group is present. The analysis has shown that there are clear differences between the genders. The female always has some sort of seal tooth ornament around her waist and thighs.

In this study I analysed how burning affects sprouting ability and survival of oak (Quercus robur) during the first season after a burn in southern Sweden. The study consisted of two separate field tests; in the first, two 300 m2- plots in western oak dominated forest were burned to analyze the fire behavior and the immediate mortality of oak and beech seedlings defined as individuals (> 20cm of height). At the end of the season almost 50% of the oak seedlings had resprouted while the beech seedlings had 100% mortality. An attempt to investigate the effect of the burn of artificially sown acorns was totally ruined by wild boar grouting before any conclusive results could be seen. In the second test the resprouting ability of oaks of varying diameters (average BHD 7-9 cm, range 2-42 cm) was examined one season after a prescribed burn in southeastern Sweden.

Fungi are everywhere around us and recently, there has been an increased interest in their role and importance in the forest. The fungi have several strategies to acquire energy and nutrition; one example is a mutual symbiosis with trees and plants - another being dissolving organic materials. Attempts have been made to better understand the circulation of nutrition in coniferous forests, and how fungi cooperate. Trees and plants have adapted with mycorrhizae and are now interdependent which is important to consider in forestry. A great number of fungi depend on dead wood and old trees to set fruiting bodies and spread further. These fungi also create environments for other species, such as birds and insects. The vegetation of a forest is determined by a series of factors; tree species, how old the forest is, soil type, as well as the ability of the fungal spores to spread and establish. Furthermore, in determining vegetation, the fungi?s ability to compete in the soil matters. These factors are nearly unexplored. Researching fungi knowledge and interest, a survey was distributed to five groups of people. The groups included forest owners, high school teachers, high school students, senior citizens, and a fifth group - ?o he ? - consisting of people of mixed ages and backgrounds.

Feline odontoclastic resorptive lesion (FORL) is a tooth disease affecting both domestic and wild cats. Although FORL was described as early as the 1920´s, the etiology is still unclear. Several hypotheses have been presented but different studies have obtained contradictory results, and today there is no generally accepted etiology. Teeth affected by FORL are characterized by root resorption with progressive destruction of the tooth structure and alveolar bone as a consequence of clast cell activity. The disease is considered very painful when reaching a certain stage.

Av naturvårdsskäl är det viktigt att förstå vilken betydelse area och ålder på anlagda våtmarker har för artsammansättningen av sjöfåglar. I Linköpings kommun har man sedan 2004 anlagt ett flertal våtmarker och dessa har lockat bland annat den rödlistade arten svarthakedopping, Podiceps auritus, i stor mängd. Våtmarker är viktiga för fågellivet av många olika anledningar. Bland annat kan fåglarna söka skydd mot predatorer, häcka där eller rasta på sin väg mot häckningsplatser. Tidigare studier har bland annat visat att det finns fler fåglar i större våtmarker och att våtmarkens ålder spelar roll för vilka fågelarter som går att finna där.

This study has been about the representation of the Swedish tourism company Swanson?s. They do trips in US and every year they do a brochure with many pictures. The objective of my study is to look how pictures help to constructs places. Its often problem with pictures because sometimes they are constructs.

A zoonosis is a disease or infection that is naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans. The majority of infectious diseases that affect humans are zoonoses. Environments where wild animals, domestic animals and humans live in close proximity with no or small boundaries in the ecological system favor the transmission of diseases between animals and humans. The above described situation is more common in low income countries, where humans and animals live in high density and zoonoses are generally more common. The study was conducted in Cambodia.