Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2016
Authors
Pia Heltoft ThomsenAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Pia Heltoft Thomsen Jennie L. Brierley Alison K. Lees Louise Sullivan James Lynott Arne HermansenAbstract
A glasshouse experiment was carried out with the aim of quantifying the relative contribution of seed- and soil-borne inoculum of three Fusarium spp. (F. coeruleum, F. sambucinum and F. avenaceum) in causing dry rot in two potato cultivars, Asterix and Saturna. Different concentrations of inoculum; control (water only), low (102 conidia ml−1) and high (105 conidia ml−1) were used to inoculate seed and infest soil and disease severity on progeny tubers was subsequently assessed following an 8-week post-harvest storage period. Overall, F. sambucinum caused significantly (P < 0.05) larger rots than F. avenaceum, with the severity of rots caused by F. coeruleum being intermediate, and disease severity was greater in cv. Asterix than cv. Saturna (P < 0.01). None of the seed inoculation treatments resulted in dry rot development on progeny tubers. In contrast, soil infested with Fusarium species resulted in significantly more severe tuber rots on progeny tubers compared with controls (P < 0.01). Soil infested with F. sambucinum (low and high levels) resulted in significantly more severe rots than control treatments (P < 0.001), whilst only high levels of F. avenaceum soil inoculum increased the severity of tuber rots compared with control treatments (P < 0.05). Increased disease severity observed as a result of the addition of inoculum of F. coeruleum to soil was not significant.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
This paper describes a method in which horses learn to communicate by touching different neutral visual symbols, in order to tell the handler whether they want to have a blanket on or not. Horses were trained for 10–15 min per day, following a training program comprising ten steps in a strategic order. Reward based operant conditioning was used to teach horses to approach and touch a board, and to understand the meaning of three different symbols. Heat and cold challenges were performed to help learning and to check level of understanding. At certain stages, a learning criterion of correct responses for 8–14 successive trials had to be achieved before proceeding. After introducing the free choice situation, on average at training day 11, the horse could choose between a “no change” symbol and the symbol for either “blanket on” or “blanket off” depending on whether the horse already wore a blanket or not. A cut off point for performance or non-performance was set to day 14, and 23/23 horses successfully learned the task within this limit. Horses of warm-blood type needed fewer training days to reach criterion than cold-bloods (P < 0.05). Horses were then tested under differing weather conditions. Results show that choices made, i.e. the symbol touched, was not random but dependent on weather. Horses chose to stay without a blanket in nice weather, and they chose to have a blanket on when the weather was wet, windy and cold (χ2 = 36.67, P < 0.005). This indicates that horses both had an understanding of the consequence of their choice on own thermal comfort, and that they successfully had learned to communicate their preference by using the symbols. The method represents a novel tool for studying preferences in horses.
Authors
L.J. Keeling Knut Egil Bøe J.W. Christensen S. Hyyppä H. Jansson Grete H. M. Jørgensen J. Ladewig Cecilie Marie Mejdell S. Särkijärvi E. Søndergaard E. HartmannAbstract
There is increasing interest in keeping horses in groups, but progress is hampered by a lack of knowledge about which horses can and should be kept together. Therefore, our objective was to investigate the effect of group composition on the occurrence of injuries among horses, the ease of removing horses from groups and horses’ reactivity to a fearful stimulus. Using a matched case control design, 61 groups of horses were studied in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. They were allocated into groups of similar or different age and sex or where membership changed regularly or remained stable. Injuries were recorded before mixing the horses into treatment groups, the day after mixing and four weeks later. Reactivity of horses to a moving novel object and the behaviour of a horse being removed from its group and the reactions of other group members towards this horse and the handler were evaluated. It was hypothesized that a more socially variable group composition has beneficial effects on behaviour, ease of handling and reducing reactivity whereas frequent changes in group composition has negative consequences, resulting in more injuries. We found that differences in treatment effects were mainly related to breed, rather than group composition. Icelandic horses reacted less to the movement of the novel object (P = 0.007) and approached it more afterwards (P = 0.04). They also had fewer new injuries than warmbloods following mixing (P < 0.001) and fewer than all other groups four weeks later (P < 0.01). Most new injuries after mixing were minor and recorded on the horse’s head, chest, hind legs and rump. In conclusion, variations in sex and age composition of the group had little effect on injury level, reactivity and ease of handling compared to the general effect of breed. Concerns about the risk of severe injuries associated with keeping horses in groups are probably overestimated. Thus, we propose that horses can be successfully kept in groups of different sex and age composition.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Anders Nielsen Merethe Aasmo Finne Maria Gulbrandsen Asmyhr Jan Ove Gjershaug Lawrence R. Kirkendall Vigdis Vandvik Gaute Velle Hugo de Boer Kjetil Hindar Nina Elisabeth Nagy Eli Knispel Rueness Odd Terje Sandlund Kjersti Sjøtun Hans K. StenøienAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Lars T. HavstadAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Lars T. HavstadAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered