The use of artificial insemination (A.I.) as an alternative to normal mating in dog breeding in Sweden are controlled by regulations from the Swedish Board of Agriculture and by ethical rules assigned by the Swedish Kennel Club. Only veterinarians, who have a specific certificate and are specially trained and educated, are allowed to perform inseminations in dogs. Each artificial insemination must be documented and reported to the Swedish Kennel Club (SKK) which, on the behalf of the Swedish Board of Agriculture, yearly presents statistics concerning the use of A.I. in Sweden. The objective of this study was to illustrate the use of artificial insemination in dog breeding in Sweden for the last decade, using the yearly reports from the Kennel Club during the period of 1995 to 2004.

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether or not Icelandic horses are less severely affected in clinical symptoms of cough or decreased performance than other breeds of horses. A breed variation in chronic respiratory disease severity was suspected based on clinical experience at the Institution for surgery & medicine, large animal, SLU Uppsala. A retrospective journal study of 17 Icelandic horses and 17 Swedish Standardbred horses with chronic problems with cough and/or decreased performance compared several measurements of disease severity. The clinical signs, physical examination and laboratory testing results compared were respiratory rate, abdominal breathing, lung auscultation, endoscopy results, broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) results and the blood gases pO2 and pCO2. All parameters were available for all 34 individuals except for the blood gases, which were analysed, in only four Icelandic horses and four Swedish Standardbred horses. The only parameters that appeared different between the two groups were respiratory rate and pO2. The four Icelandic horses, which had blood gases analysed, had more severe hypoxemia.

AstraZeneca in Mölndal (AZRDM) uses beagles bred at Rååhöjdens kennel in Örkelljunga for their research purposes. The staff wishes to have mentally stable dogs to work with, sine stress can effect the research results. The purpose of this study was to put together the testresults from dogs delivered 2003 and 2004, to see if there is a connection between delivery age and testresult. We have also worked out a method to test if early planned handling of the dogs makes a difference on how the dogs later respond in a testsituation, and tried this method in a pilotstudy. The data that we have based our calculations on is 172 dogs, divided into 108 males and 64 females. We found a significant connection between the age at delivery and the testresult in contactability for female dogs delivered in 2003, where increasing age led to decreasing grades in the test at AZRDM. When looking at the difference in testresults between test number two at the kennel and the test at AZRDM we found a significant connection for female dogs delivered during 2003, ie the difference takes on a more negative value with increasing age at delivery. We found a difference between the two sexes in our calculations.

The Swedish Lapphund is one of our eleven Swedish domestic breeds of dogs and one of Sweden?s oldest dogbreeds. The Finnish Lapphund?s origin and physical conformation is similar to that of the Swedish Lapphund. One aim of this study was to examine whether the average litter size differs between these two closely related breeds, and if so, try to find causes for this.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic respiratory disease with an estimated incidence of 3-6 cases per 100 000 inhabitants in Sweden. There is no cure for the disease, which inevitably leads to death. A similar disease has been found among terrier dogs, with an especially high prevalence in the West Highland White Terrier (WHWT). Dogs with pulmonary fibrosis become lethargic with exercise intolerance, and in some cases they develop cough and respiratory distress. This thesis gives a brief review of the field of pulmonary fibrosis and presents a method for analyzing surfactant proteins in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in the dog.

Kennelhosta är ett samlingsnamn för en grupp virus- och bakterieinfektioner som ofta drabbar hundar som är tillsammans med större grupper av andra hundar. Symptomen är oftast milda, vanligtvis med en torr, hackande hosta, men kan i vissa fall ta sig uttryck som svårare symptom som lunginflammation. De vanligaste infektionsämnena är hundens parainfluensavirus (CPIV), hundens respiratoriska coronavirus (CRCoV), hundens adenovirus typ 2 (CAV-2) och bakterien Bordetella bronchiseptica. Hundens respiratoriska coronavirus är det virus som undersöktes i studien som ligger till grund för den här rapporten. Familjen coronavirus innehåller de största membranomslutna virusen med RNA som arvsmassa med genomstorlekar på upp till 32000 baser.

Vaccination as a part of the preventative public health project has for many years been one of the important tasks of the children's health care. The vaccination program has been adjusted to current research and the health situation in the country. Having their children vaccinated is not something obvious for all parents, though. Especially the vaccination against measles, whooping cough and German measles have been questioned. The purpose of this literature study was to investigate the reasons for the resistance to vaccinate and to illuminate the security creating advice of the nurse at the public health centre.

There is desire to evaluate the tracheal diameter in the Swedish population of English Bulldog, a breed with breathing disorders, and if possible use it as a criteria for breeding in the hope of improving the life situation for these dogs. The Swedish Kennel Club has together with the Swedish Club for English Bulldog and veterinarians presented a five year radiological study that has the purpose to give an average look on how the tracheal situation is in the population. The trachea will be evaluated through two different methods, both measuring two distances in the thorax. The first one compares the tracheal diameter to the height of the cranial opening of the thorax, and the second one to the width of the third rib. With the measured distances one will calculate a quotient and compares it to the reference values.This study is designed to get a preliminary evaluation, based on the 65 dogs that were available on the time for the study, with measurements done by two persons on three different occasions each.

There's a good adherence to the vaccination of children, about 98% of all two year olds are vaccinated. Despite this, there are cases of whooping cough and measles in Sweden. The purpose of the study was to describe what motivates parents to not vaccinate and reflections and attiudes about vaccinations. The study had a descriptive design with qualitative approach. Eight parents who had chosen not to follow the National Board of Health?s vaccination program or whom had decided to completely abandon, participated in the study.

The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine and describe dog breeders? information activities. Questions posed in this study are:? What are the information needs of dog breeders?? How does the dog breeder seek and use information?? How can the relationship between serious leisure and information activities be described?The theoretical framework consists of the sociologist Robert A Stebbins? theory about serious leisure. The study is based on a qualitative methodology.

There's a good adherence to the vaccination of children, about 98% of all two year olds are vaccinated. Despite this, there are cases of whooping cough and measles in Sweden. The purpose of the study was to describe what motivates parents to not vaccinate and reflections and attiudes about vaccinations. The study had a descriptive design with qualitative approach. Eight parents who had chosen not to follow the National Board of Health?s vaccination program or whom had decided to completely abandon, participated in the study.

I the year of 2008 there were more than 60 000 purebred dogs newly registered in theSwedish Kennel Club. In addition there are a lot of mixed breed dogs and in the year of2006 it was estimated that there were over 700 000 dogs in Sweden. In today?s society it isnot unusual that people change their life situation by moving, getting a new job or startinga family. Because of this there is a risk of rehoming for dogs owned by these people.In Sweden dogs are among others rehomed by advertising or by rehoming organisations.

For centuries inbreeding has been used to refine traits in dogs, making desired traits more hereditary and thereby, different breeds have been invented. Breed standards have been written for each of these breeds, describing in detail the different characteristics of each breed. When humans start to choose which animal to breed from, so called artificial selection, taste is put before function and the laws of nature, the natural selection, cease to apply. During this development, pedigree dogs have gone towards more and more extreme exterior characteristics and the dogs may have inherited various, more or less, severe problems for example compromised vision, impaired ability to move and difficulties to breathe. However they can still survive and reproduce because humans provide them with the conditions to do so.

This is a study of some risk factors for Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in dogs. As a pilot study it is meant to give information to be used in a planned later, larger and better controlled study. The present study hypothesized that suboptimal feeding (high percentage of homemade and table foods), lack of activity and overweight contribute to the risk of DM. Twenty consecutive dogs diagnosed with DM at the Veterinary University Clinic in Uppsala between 2000 ? 2003 were chosen as the experimental group.

Heart failure is a condition where the heart is incapable of providing adequate blood supply to different organs in the body. The underlying causes of heart failure is some kind of disorder in the heart function, and require careful diagnostics. The basic symptoms that arise from heart failure is difficulty in breathing, that aggravate when lying down, and fatigue. The patients? symptoms and impaired quality of life can be in different stages depending on the severity of the heart failure.