Research

Contagious claw diseases, which cause significant pain, affect both cattle and sheep. Currently, diagnosis relies on subjective clinical examination due to the lack of a reliable laboratory diagnostic method.

This project aim to develop a strong research platform for perennial cereal production systems in Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic, henceforward referred to as the Northern countries.

Heat stress in dairy cows affects health, fertility and production – as shown in studies from warmer countries. But we lack knowledge from countries with a temperate climate and there’s need for support and guidance about decisions on, and use of, different types of cooling in Swedish conditions.

Animal welfare is on the agenda: cows included. But when increasingly more farmers are changing the way their animals are held one disease in particular has escalated - a cocktail of bacteria that spreads rapidly and at ground level, between the hooves. And the big challenge is detecting it in time.

SLU is now announcing eight new PhD positions as part of a collaboration with the forest sector. The positions are part of the research programme Wallenberg Initiatives in Forest Research (WIFORCE), aimed at meeting future knowledge needs for the sustainable management and conservation of forests.

Are there still wild honeybee colonies in Sweden and Europe? If so, how do they survive the dreaded Varroa mite? These are some of the questions that researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) would like to answer, with the help of citizen scientists and beekeepers.

Lameness is by far the most common health problem in Swedish warmblooded riding horses (SWB). Researchers at SLU have investigated the proportion of orthopedic problems in different groups of the SWB population, including differences between jumping and dressage horses, conducted for the first time.

In spite of elks, spruce beetles and pathogenic fungi, wind is probably the largest cause of economic loss for European forestry. A number of reports in recent years investigates how the risk of wind damage can be expected to develop during the rest of the century,

Cronartium pini is a very serious fungal disease that attacks pine trees throughout Sweden, with particularly extensive outbreaks in the north. It causes millions of Swedish kronor worth of damage to forestry each year.