Soft rubber flooring have gained in popularity over the last years. Rubber flooring al-lows cow to move more freely without slipping and improves claw and leg health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of a stepwise introduktion of soft flooring on cow`s placement in cow houses with robotic milking. A case study was carried out in a herd in northern Sweden with 41 cows. Observations were made every 15 minutes between 09.00 and 16.00 concering cow placement in cu-bicles, in cubicle alley, in feeding alley and in feeding alley with the head through feed-ing gate. One observation period was carried out per flooring alternativ: 1) all concrete Slatted floor, 2) rubber Slatted floor in feeding alley and concrete Slatted floor in cubicle alley and 3) rubber Slatted floors in feeding alley and solid rubber floors in cubicle alley. The study showed that 6 %-units fewer cows lay in the cubicles when the feeding alley surface was slatted rubber.

The purpose of this study was, if possible, to find a housing system for growing bulls that was as optimal as possible for the animal welfare. In order to select housing systems you must take into account the size of the group, body weight and the type of floor. Seven of the international most common housing systems were compared, straw bedding, deep straw bedding, sliding straw bedding, concrete Slatted floor, rubber coated Slatted floor, cubicles and feeding cubicles. Studies that have examined the proportion of tail, claw and leg injuries and the presence of unnatural behavior in the different systems. In summary, all studies showed that soft underlay were beneficial for the animals in terms of the proportion of bone lesions and swellings.

About 80 % of all Swedish dairy cows are kept in tie-stalls, but loose housing is increasing, probably because it is more profitable for the farmer. The design of the floors is of cruicial importance to the cows well-being. Traditionally, the most common type of floor in the alleys of a cubicle system still is a slatted manure-draining floor made of concrete. The typical Swedish design has 125-mm slats and 40-mm slots, maximally. With too wide slots, there is an increased risk of injuries to the claws when the cow makes a hasty move.

In the farrowing pens the amount of bedding material and the quality of the concrete floor has a huge impact on both the sow and the piglets. In this study imbedding of rubber flooring on the solid area in the farrowing pen was used to see if it had any effects on the sows lying behaviour when compared to concrete. Another important aspect was to evaluate if the rubber floorings had a high enough durability to resist the normal wear in a farrowing pen. Concrete flooring is assumed to have a higher thermally conductive effect then rubber which can affect the sow?s chance to cool down.

During an investigation of animal welfare in animal production, the focus has for a long time been focused on the absence of stress, suffering and injuries, and positive emotions have not been prioritized. However, in recent years that has been drastically changed. The public interest have increased for buying animal products from animals that have had a decent life, which have led to that play, exploratory behavior and other positive behaviours has come to play a significant role in welfare assessment. The welfare of cattle is difficult to assess since there is currently no ancestors to study, it is thus difficult to determine which behaviors can be regarded as natural and thus positively related, acordingly the welfare of cattle have been forgotten and research on positive emotions of cattle have not been prioritized. The aim of this study was to observe which behavior growing cattle performe, and if there was any differences of which kind of behavior that was observed, if the cattle is keept on Slatted floor or on a deep straw bedding. Furthermore, antoher purpose was to investigate if the observed behaviours indicate a positive, negative or natural welfare, and if it is possible to use the observed behaviours in a welfare assessment.

Shopping malls have been growing in numbers during the last few decades. As an effect, consumers are increasingly placing a greater amount of their purchases under one roof. The problem is that stores within these malls have to fight for the consumers' attention in competition with all the other stores. Thus, making consumers noticing their store is critical for success. Creating attention through floor advertising could be a potential way of doing so.

The aim with the project was to portray something to step on. Its purpose has been to experiment and explore the interaction between pattern, structure, material and colour for something to be applied on a floor. Focus has been on esthetic expression and not the creation of some¬thing for a specific environment or audience. My goal was also that this project would illustrate the importance of the floor to create a certain atmosphere in a room.The project was divided into three phases. The first one was the experimenting and exploring phase, where the goal was to find an expression.

Floor signs in stores have become a more common phenomenon during past years. The problem is that the knowledge about these signs is limited and the actual effects are unknown. This lack of knowledge can have a negative impact on store performance and marketing efforts. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of floor signs on consumer attitude and behaviour. The study was conducted in two grocery stores, where the movement pattern of 39 501 customers was recorded over a four week period.

Floor surface in pig facilities can have an impact on animal welfare and pig health, as it can cause the pig physical damage and thereby increased risk of infectious diseases and lameness. The development of pig housing systems has resulted in a decreased use of bedding. It seems hard to find the optimal floor in farrowing pens, as it must suit both the sow and piglets. The floor friction needs to be adequate to avoid slips and at the same time should the floor be non-abrasive. Abrasions and lesions caused by the floor are not only causing the animal suffering, but are also negative from an economical aspect.

The survey aims to shed light on traditional and contemporary bottom floor frames, their construction and different insulating materials; mineral wool, wood shavings and charcoal. The purpose is to analyze and discuss the similarities and differences as well as the pros and cons with a focus on the construction and the different insulating materials. The work has been limited to comparing two different wooden floor frames. The first one is based on a real floor frame from an older building, this example is presented as the traditional floor frame in this study and are from around 1940. The other floor frame is presented as a contemporary floor frame and is based on wood building type descriptions and literature.

Half of Sweden?s 140 000-150 000 sows are culled and replaced by 75 000 gilts annually. Culling of old sows is necessary and allows new breeding material to enter the herd. However, many of the culled sows are young, and have not yet become profitable at the time for culling. Therefore, it is an important question for the pig industry, how to raise gilts to sows with a high and sustainable production level.

The incidence of damage to the claws and legs in piglets caused by the floor in farrowing pens is a widely known problem and very common in today's pig herds. Although the association between floor and damage has been known for over 35 years, no suitable solution has been found to reduce the negative impact. The purpose of this study was to make a literature study to document the experiences of the use of different types of flooring in farrowing pens and also, in an own study, examine if soft floor in farrowing crates could lead to reduced damage to the claws and legs in piglets compared to concrete floor. The study was conducted in two herds, A and B. In each herd, farrowing pens with concrete floor and concrete floor with polyurethane coating were compared.

In Sweden, there has been a continuous increase in the volume of housing construction for dairy cattle. Since 2004, the number of new, rebuilt and extended dairy cow houses undergoing preliminary inspection by the authorities has grown. The livestock farms have mostly focused on cow units instead of calf and heifer sheds; which has led to a need for information in this area. The purpose of the study was to improve advisors? knowledge about bovine building construction and function; to enable them to provide more qualified advice to conventional and organic milk producers who sustain larger herds.

The purpose of this thesis is to examinethe possibilities for adding a floor to anexisting building using the two materialswood and sheet metal profiles as the loadbearing structure. An apartment buildingfrom the 60s has been used as referencehouse. Two different suggestions for thedesign are presented in the rapport. Oneof them has been analyzed with wood andsheet metal as the load bearing structure.Using the old constructional calculationsand blueprints of the existing buildings,the load bearing capacity has beencalculated. In the calculation programFEM-Design the building has been testedwith the loads that an extra floor wouldgive.

In the country of Jordan, egg production is very important economically, but several bacte-ria are involved in food borne diseases transmitted from eggs or other poultry products. The most important are Salmonella spp., Campylobacter jejuni and Escherichia coli. In Jordan two different housing systems are used for hens in large scale egg production; con-ventional cages and litter floor systems. Eggs from four different farms were analysed and compared to see if a difference could be found regarding the presence of pathogenic bacte-ria on the egg surfaces between these two systems. Total number of aerobic bacteria was analysed, the presence of Salmonella spp., C.