Platelet transfusions can be necessary during treatment of patients with thrombocytopenia or impaired platelet function. Platelet function in platelet concentrates (PC) deteriorate with storage time. Studying swirling is often used to control the quality of PC?s before transfusion but the method has some disadvantages. Therefore other methods can be useful, for example impedance aggregometry (IA, Multiplate® Analyzer) to measure platelet function.     In this study the change in platelet function over time was examined in buffy coat and apheresis platelets with IA where aggregation had been induced with adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and collagen.

 Conclusion:Medical treatment may have a role in platelet count after transfusion. Since the TACSI platelets passed the quality requirements, and the vast majority of patients platelet count increased after TACSI platelet transfusion, the TACSI platelets will replace the old method to produce platelets at the Uppsala University hospital.  Methods: A new approach that pools 8 buffy coats (TACSI platelets) that were separated into 2 units instead of 4-6 buffy coats pooled to 1 unit was investigated in this study. After the platelets were extracted from the buffy coats their quality was controlled and subsequently the platelet product was evaluated in 96 patients. Results: The results showed that 80 % of the platelet units passed the European quality requirements. Further, the platelet count was increased in most patients that received TACSI platelets. Conclusion: Medical treatment may have a role in platelet count after transfusion.

Platelets are small fragments, but they are of crucial importance for the coagulation. The risk of spontaneous bleeding increases when the level of platelets falls below a thrombocyte particle concentration threshold value of 50 x 109/L. In those cases a platelet transfusion might be compulsory. Ongoing research tries to improve the quality of the platelets and to increase the safety of the method used. However, we still need to better understand which factors that affect how patients react upon platelet transfusion.

Platelet aggregation is a major and common problem in blood samples from cats. This greatly affects the accuracy of counting of the platelets. Because of the difficulties in counting feline platelets, results for patients and reliable reference values for cat platelets are currently so inaccurate as to be almost useless in diagnosis of thrombocytopenia. In this study we used an effective method to prevent platelet aggregation. Blood was collected in CTAD test tubes and prostaglandin E1 was added to the blood sample.

Introduction: It is recommended to place all the vacuum tubes directly on a sample cradle after vein puncture to prevent analytic error. This recommendation is not always easy to follow because the samples are taken by different professionals under different situations.  The three most common analyses, platelets count, haemoglobin and prothrombin time were tested.  Therefore, it was interesting to compare results from the three most common analyses with or without sample cradle, to evaluate the influence of this step on the result. Methods: Three analyses were preformed, using blood from 50 different persons. Each person gave two vacuum tubes, each contained 4.5mL of venous blood for the study.

During the years 2005-2007 several cases of abnormal bleeding were seen after surgery in Bengal cats on veterinary clinics and animal hospitals in Sweden. In this study we have examined if the observed bleedings are due to an inherited defect of the coagulation cascade. Ten Bengal cats were tested for activated partial thromboplastin time (P-APT-time) and one-stage protrombin time (P-PK), and nine of these cats were tested for fibrinogen quantity (P-fibrinogen). Four of the tested cats had shown signs of an abnormal bleeding after surgery, and five of the cats were genetically related to these cats. One cat had a small bleeding wound at the internal base of the right auricle.

In Uganda, small scale pig production plays a major role for households to earn a living and to secure their access to meat. Piglet mortality due to diar-rhoea-related dieseases is high. In an attempt to understand the underlying causes for this high mortality this study aims to investigate the role of trans-missible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) and is a part of a larger project con-ducted at Makerere university in Uganda. A complicating factor in this investigation is the porcine respiratory corona-virus (PRCV), a stabile mutant form of the TGE virus. The occurrence of this virus had shown to alter the impact of TGEV in e.g. Europe and North Amer-ica.

Uganda has the largest pig population in east Africa, and most of the animals are owned by smallholders. Infectious diseases among pigs have a devastating impact on the livelihood of these farmers, which are dependent on the proceeds from pig rearing. In a metagenomics study of the wild pig species bushpig (Potamochoerus larvatus), the porcine viruses Torque teno sus virus (TTSuV) 1and 2 and Porcine parvovirus 4 (PPV4) were detected. TTSuV1 and 2 are ubiquitous in the world?s swine population, and PPV4 has been found in USA and China, but neither of them has been studied in Africa previously.

Immune stimulating complex (iscom) matrix is a formulation that is used as anadjuvant within research. The capability of the iscom matrix to elicit an immuneresponse when not present together with an antigen has not been extensivelyinvestigated. One way to evaluate the status of the immune system is to measure theamount of cytokines that usually are produced by various cell types during an immuneresponse. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the early immune responses inporcine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) after stimulation in vitro with theiscom matrix, AbISCO®-100. The immune response was evaluated by measuring themRNA expression for various cytokines, a chemokine receptor (CXCR4) andregulator of G-protein signaling (RGS16) in porcine PBMC after stimulation withAbISCO®-100 or other inducers like a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and a CpGoligodeoxynucleotide (ODN 2216) used as controls.

High quality within a Lean production system begins with standardised work, which creates stable processes able to generate predictable output. If nonconformity from the standard procedures occurs, routines are needed to analyse, correct and prevent the nonconformity from occurring again. In that way, the nonconformity can be a trigger for continuous improvements toward more stable processes. In takted production lines, where the operator follows a standard sequence with tasks set to be completed within the takt time, a nonconformity leads to downtime in the operator?s sequence, and no value is added.

Lawsonia intracellularis is an important pathogen in the intestine, causing diarrhea and retarded (or poor) growth in pigs. Diagnostics is based on sampling of small amounts of faeces. Several publicated scientific papers mention the use of faecal swabs as sampling material for diagnosis in experiments and in prevalence studies. Therefore the need of an evaluation of this sampling technique is urgent since, to our knowledge, this has not previously been done. Here reported work compare the use of rectal swabs for feacal sampling, with sampling and analysis of 0.1-0.2 gram of faeces. The studie included twelve herds with a case history of earlier or ongoing problems with diarrhoea where Lawsonia intracellularis could be suspected as the causative agent. A total of 120 growing pigs where examined.

Hematology-instruments that analyze blood cells can at specific cases be followed by manual counting with a hemocytometer. The plastic hemocytometer which has a fixed coverslip and is assigned for disposable use, appears to reduce the problems arising from the use of the traditional glass hemocytometer, for instance coverslip-application difficulty and dust particles. Capillary whole blood sampling may be useful for patients at the emergency department and in addition, a smaller volume of blood is taken compared to venous blood sampling. This study will focus on the platelet- and leukocyte count (PLT and WBC) in venous and capillary blood, in order to compare the plastic- and glass hemocytometers with Sysmex XN-2000 (Sysmex Corporation, Kobe, Japan), and verify if capillary whole blood sampling can be used for the measurement of these hematological parameters. 30 subjects donated both capillary- and venous blood samples and these blood samples were analyzed with glass- and plastic hemocytometers with Sysmex XN-2000 as the reference method.

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.

Diabetes mellitus is an endocrine disorder affecting a range of different mammals, including dogs, cats, horses and humans. Worldwide, 347 million people have diabetes, and the disease is an increasing burden on the world?s poorest countries. The disease is characterised by chronic hyperglycaemia and afflicted individuals experience increased thirst, polyuria and weight loss, sometimes despite increased appetite. Diabetes mellitus is either insulin dependent or non-insulin dependent.

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.