Cross-Suckling, i.e. when an offspring nurses a female other than their own mother, occurs in pig production systems where sows are group housed during lactation. As production systems where several sows and their litters are housed together during lactation are getting more common, the need of knowledge regarding cross-Suckling increases. The overall aims with this thesis was to investigate how sow behaviour and productivity are associated with the occurrence of cross-Suckling, and to investigate consistency in sow nursing behaviour related to cross-Suckling. The study included information about the first 4 parities of 40 LxY sows kept in outdoor and indoor production environments. Sows were single housed the first 2 weeks after farrowing and group housed (4 or 5 sows per group) from 2 weeks after farrowing until weaning, 7 weeks after farrowing.

By tradition horses are weaned at an age of 5-6 months. This study illuminates weaned foals misdirected Suckling behaviour, which means that they try to suckle another foal. Since no information about this issue is presented, we decided to perform a behaviour study on weaned foals. The misdirected Suckling behaviour was studied on a group with 7 foals, with both fillies and colts. In the group the weaning age varied between 147 days and 215 days, and the first time we observed them, they had been separated from the mares for 12 days.

The pig is unique in the way that it gives birth to a large number of newborns in each litter. Because of this the sow has developed a special behaviour during Suckling to ensure that not only a part of the litter gets all the milk. Milk is only available during milk letdown. The piglets have to massage the udder for a long time before letdown and the more piglets at the udder the sooner the milk comes. The sow has developed a special grunting pattern to let the piglets know when she is ready for Suckling and to signal milk letdown. Our aim with this study was to investigate if sows have individual grunting patterns repeated over time. We also wanted to know if sows with a more distinct grunting pattern have better growth in their litters.

The purpose of this study was to compile when and why piglets die during the Suckling peri-od. Piglet mortality is an important factor influencing the profitability of piglet production. There are many factors that play a role and interact whit each other. This study summarizes when the piglets die during the Suckling period and reasons why the piglets die. The infor-mation given is crushed, illness, management/environmental, genetic influence and piglet birth weight/farrowingprocess.

The purpose of this literature review was to investigate how the rearing systems influence the behaviour of dairy calves. Calves are social animals that form groups within the herd where play and social licking between calves are important social activities. Suckling is a complex behaviour and essential for the calf's survival. In the modern rearing systems the calf is usually separated from its mother soon after birth. Calves are then kept in individual pens, group pens or, more rarely, with a foster cow.

Approximately 20% of the milk within the udder of a cow is stored in the cistern and immediately available for milk removal, while activation of the milk ejection reflex is required for removing the remaining milk stored in the alveolar compartment. The aim of this literature review is to describe, evaluate and consider implications of the three different Suckling activities that the calf displays during a Suckling bout. In terms of milking, these phases are represented by pre-stimulation, stimulation during milking and post-stimulation. Pre-stimulation is commonly performed in order to induce the milk ejection reflex, whereby the hormone oxytocin is released and the alveoli in the secretory tissue are contracted. Time requirements regarding pre-stimulation must be considered in relation to lactation stage and milking interval.

When beef calves are weaned abruptly at 5 to 6 months of age this triggers a strong stress reaction, since the animals have not yet untied the bonds to their mothers or stopped Suckling. This is displayed as extensive vocalization and restlessness. Attempts to diminish the negative effects of weaning on sucking calves have been showing varying results. The study presented here emanates from the observation that when calves are weaned without human interference they are only prevented from Suckling, but are still allowed to have social contacts with their mothers. The hypothesis was that calves weaned in two steps would be calmer, gain more weight, and be healthier than animals that were abruptly weaned. To investigate this, 15 calves where weaned in two stages (Group 2), by fitting the calves with nose tags that prevented them from Suckling during 5 days prior to the separation of the cows and calves.

Livestock of pastoralists provide meat, milk, blood, dung and are useful for transportation purposes. In semi-arid and arid areas with very low precipitation the herder must often walk far distances to feed the livestock. This affects the animals? production, especially of milk. Previous studies have investigated how to improve milk production in terms of milking strategies in cattle.

Swedish horse breeders have generally very few mares producing a few foals a year and the breeders have relatively few traditions, little knowledge and experience to breed foals successfully. It is therefore important to provide adequate information about new findings in horse nutrition. However, there is not much research about feeding the Suckling foal to ensure a sound growth. Current feeding recommendations in the literature seems to be different. This gives a confusing message and the information is difficult to apply. This paper reviews some publications in the area of feeding the Suckling and weaning foal. Most authors stress that it?s important to start feeding the foal early in life.

Studies on wild boars have shown that piglets at 10 to 12 days of age can be introduced to pigs outside the litter without fighting. In today's production systems, the litters are kept in separate pens until weaning. At that point, the litter is divided and the piglets are placed together with piglets from other litters. This usually leads to aggressions among the piglets and may cause stress. This literature review aims to find out how piglets perceive other pigs in their surroundings.

Weaning is one of the most critical events in the piglet production with problems such as growth check and post-weaning diarrhea as a result. The lighter the piglets are when the growth check occurs, the harder they have to get back to normal growth rate. Creep feeding of piglets is used to reduce the problems by increasing the weaning weight and adapting the digestive tract to a starter diet. Hodge (1974) showed that the sow?s milk can not provide enough nutrients for maximal growth rate.

No summary of feeding recommendations for foals exists today, which is why this subject was chosen for a literature study. The aim of this study was to describe nutrient requirements of healthy full term foals and how the feeding should be designed to raise foals if they lose their mother. Mare milk composition changes during lactation to meet the requirements of the Suckling foal. Foals are born with enzymes in their small intestine and the concentrations of these follow the consumption patterns of the foal. Microbes colonizes the gut as the foal becomes older and these changes cause foal diarrhea.

AbstractOne opinion among people who are experienced in hand rearing newborn mammals is that goat milk is more suitable than cow milk if the young needs a milk replacer. The purpose of this literature review was to find out if there is scientific evidence that goat milk is a better milk replacer for piglets, rat pups and foals than cow milk. The milk is essential for the newborn animal, as its only source of nutrition until it has learned how to eat solid food. In this literature review, the composition of goat milk and cow milk is compared with the nutrient requirements after birth in piglets, rat pups and foals. The nutrient requirements and the milk composition are partly determined by the newborn mammals activity level and Suckling frequency, which also is described.

This paper deals with diet and gender in the early roman iron age in Sweden. Human bone and tooth material from the Iron Age cemetery at Bjärby in Kastlösa parish on the island of Öland have been analysed for stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes. 21 individuals were sampled. Where possible 4 samples were taken from each individual, from the first, second and third molar respectively and from one compact bone. By doing so it is possible, at least in theory, to trace intra-individual diets throughout life.

Sammansättningen och kvalitén på mjölken som produceras är betalningsgrundande och därmed är det viktigt ur en ekonomisk synvinkel att producera mjölk som håller en hög standard. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att undersöka om samband finns mellan typ av digivning respektive avvänjning och mjölkens sammansättning. Fokus ligger på mjölkfettet samt fettsyrorna. De produktionssystem som tas upp är begränsad digivning och artificiell uppfödning. Begränsad digivning innebär att avkomman får gå med moderdjuret vissa timmar av dygnet fram till en senare avvänjning jämfört med artificiell uppfödning där avkomman skiljs från moderdjuret strax efter förlossningen.