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.

Colobus angolensis palliatus is a small old world monkey inhabiting southern coastal Kenya to southern Tanzania. The species activity budget is known to vary between seasons and areas, probably due to differences in group sizes, diets, predatory presence and resource competition. The variations between male and female activity budgets are reckoned to be a result of pregnancy and lactation. The aim of this study was to investigate potential differences in behaviours between morning and afternoon periods and between males and females. The study was carried out in two forest fragments in Diani Beach on the south coast of Kenya.

Inbreeding has become a problem in some horse breeds. Studies show that it may lead to inbreeding depression which affects e.g. reproduction traits. In the wild there are mechanisms that make horses avoid mating with close relatives. When selection is done by humans this mechanism is removed and intensive breeding for a few traits, for example good racing results, can become a problem.

The aim of this study is to describe how nature is portrayed in swedish poet and critic Aase Berg?s two earliest poetry collections, Hos rådjur (1997) and Mörk materia (1999), and how it relates to notions of humanity, culture and civilisation. The concept of ?nature? is problematized in a short survey of how it has been used by and critizised in ecocritical literary theory, which is used as the main theoretical framework for this survey, with an emphasis on selected theoretical concepts by Donna Haraway. As a methodological starting point, ?nature? is tentatively defined as ?that which does not let itself be subsumed under the human, culture or civilisation?, and this definition is contrasted with how the concepts are handled in the texts.The investigation shows that the relationship of nature to the human is a fundamental theme that provides a structure for both poetry collections.

Cheetahs in the wild are declining due to hunting, lack of prey, exploitation of habitats and loss of cubs to predators. Those are the main reasons to why cheetahs are kept in captivity today for conservation. Many cheetahs kept in captivity are seen pacing ? a behaviour that arise when the animal is prohibited from performing natural behaviours. It is believed to being attributed to a lack of stimulation in the environment where they are being held.

Every observation method has its advantages and disadvantages and a well-adopted method gives more reliable results. Factors affecting the choice of the most appropriate methods for recording foraging behaviours include species, group size, environment, seasons and age. The focus for this study was to determine which method is most appropriate for studying the foraging behaviour of a troop of 89 olive baboons (Papio anubis) living in a riverine forest by the Southern Ewaso Ng'iro River by Lale'enok Resource Centre in Kenya. To determine this, a literature study was carried out to compare methods from monkeys and apes. I found instantaneous sampling was the most common method with intervals of 5 minutes in most cited studies.

An increasing number of peole are resisting the attraction of living around nature and opting instead to spend their lives in cities. Parks and green areas play an important part in our well-being and we become fascinated with the diversity of nature, in which we find a peacefulness that is unique. Amongst other things, being surrounded by nature can reduce high blood presure, lower the production of stress hormones and stimulate the mind and our ability to concentrate. It is therefore vitally important to entice city residents to parks and green areas to improve their physical and mental well-being. Previous research has shown that humans are seeking for certain characteristics in the parks and green areas which they are visiting.

Since the 9/11-attacks several nations have been confronted with a new international threat, its nature traces back to the political- and religious- radical movements of the 20th century Cold War. Ever since, various states have been under threat by terrorist organizations around the world due to mainly participating in worldwide counter-terrorist interventions created by western alliances. In Sweden, amongst other countries, the state took security-precautions that would imply total control of information throughout the territorial borders. The assigned proposition was accepted by the Swedish parliament in June 18th 2008, after this date wild spread criticism was still in effect ever since the Swedish government first publicly announced the proposition in May 8th 2007. This study emphasizes on understanding why the Swedish government chose to present this proposition to parliament, in order to complete this task the study will present the motives and the alleged threats that were the core of the proposition and its value-maximizing goal of creating a new surface for Swedish homeland security.

The last years trends of increasing globalisation and the decreasing importance of the nationstate has led to rising flows of travellers and information throughout the globe. This has affected the competition between destinations; they are now competing in a global market. The importance of placemarketing and representing a place identity, is today essential to attract customers from around the world. The purpose of this essay was to examine how Iceland as a place is represented through the photographs in horse tourism. The research questions asked were: How is the Icelandic landscape represented in photographs? How is people and horses represented in the landscape? And how can the horse be analysed as a part of the Icelandic landscape? The method used for research was image-analysis, a qualitative approach where horse tourism-websites and photographs on these websites were strategically selected.

Research concerning movement patterns of wild animals has been advancing since GPS technology arrived. But studying the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is still difficult because of the harsh territory it inhabits in Central Asia. This study took place in south Gobi, Mongolia, and aimed to estimate the time spent at kills and the maximum distance away from kills between visits. Snow leopards were monitored with GPS collars that took a location every five or seven hours. Potential kill sites were established by identifying clusters of GPS-locations in ArcGIS and visited in the field for confirmation.

Animal welfare during transport has for a long time been a problem around the world. Many animals are transported in stressful environments for slaughter. Even during Roman and Antiquity times wild animals were transported from Africa to the amusement parks in Rome. The aim of our work was to compare how well Sweden and Denmark are performing their inspections of transports of cattle and pigs for slaughter. Today, overloaded transports and poor treatment is not uncommon in Europe and every year 22 million animals are transported between countries.

Prey species make behavioral decisions to reduce the perceived risk of predation and the time spent vulnerable to predation. Behavioral responses to predators are for example selection of specific habitat types and the presence of predators influence individual vigilance. Furthermore, there is a variation in feeding niches with different herbivores focusing their foraging effort on different vegetation types which is also expected to affect the choice of habitat. Behavioral data on anti-predation and foraging behavior at on waterhole is collected from Thomson?s and Grant?s gazelles at Ol Pejeta Conservancy (0°00?N, 36°56?E) located in semiarid bushed grassland in Laikipia district of central Kenya.

The purpose of this study was to identify the way in which history textbooks from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s used for grades 7-9 depicts World War II from a eurocentric perspective. A qualitative textual analysis was used to achieve the purpose. Three history textbooks from each decade was included in the study, also comparisons have been made to see any changes over time. The study used John M. Hobson matrix describing how the Occident and the Orient are defined from a eurocentric perspective.

Corn is an important food and feed crop in the world, in Sweden it?s up till now grown on limited acreages mainly for silage. But I think it can get more important if you can grow it also for grain, because it?s a good animal feed for example, for life stock-, pigsand poultry. On of corns advantage is that it can produce the same amount of dry matter as for example wheat, barley and rise but with 25% less water. I will examine if it possible to grow corn for grain production in the south of Sweden.

Bacillus anthracis is the causative agent of anthrax, a serious and globally distributed zoonosis affecting a wide range of wild and domestic animals, invariably also humans. However, although known to humans since biblical times, much remains to be elucidated concerning the ecology and transmission of this bacterium. Of particular interest is the Bacillus anthracis spore, the uptake of which is the predominant way to contract anthrax and which is legendary for its resilience in the environment and thus crucial for persistence and spread of the disease. Hence, the aim of this study is to review the natural transmission of Bacillus anthracis and investigate potential means by which soil persisting Bacillus anthracis spores reach concentrations sufficient to infect susceptible hosts. When reviewing the literature, three different theories can be distinguished. Firstly, ?the incubator area? hypothesis suggests that favourable soil factors, possibly in association with amoebas, may constitute an environment supporting repeated spore-bacterium-spore cycling, thus increasing the local amount of spores.