Could a different management routine that strengthens the mother-offspring bond contribute to a more efficient organic piglet production?

In current Swedish organic piglet production full reproductive potential of the sows and growth potential of piglets are not achieved. The efficiency is held back by occurrence of lactational oestrus, low litter weight and large weight variation within litter. Therefore it is critical that these obstacles are reduced in a way that is easy to adapt in practice and does not contradict the ideas behind organic animal husbandry. This project aims to an improvement of the conditions needed to efficiently produce organic piglets in a batch wise manner. The batch wise breeding will reduce production costs and increase disease control. Our preliminary results indicate that the sow’s weaning to oestrus interval can be affected by the time spent in individual farrowing pen during the lactational period

Characterisation of Yeasts isolated from deep igneous rock aquifers of the fennoscandian shield

The diversity of prokaryotes in the groundwater deep below the surface of the Baltic Sea at the Aspo Hard Rock Laboratory (HRL) in southeast Sweden is well documented. In addition, there is some evidence that eukaryotes, too, are present in the deep groundwater at this site, although their origins are uncertain. To extend the knowledge of eukaryotic life in this environment, five yeast, three yeastlike, and 17 mold strains were isolated from Aspo HRL groundwater between 201 and 444 m below sea level. Phenotypic testing and phylogenetic analysis of 18S rDNA sequences of the five yeast isolates revealed their relationships to Rhodotorula minuta and Cryptococcus spp. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy demonstrated that the strains possessed morphological characteristics typical for yeast, although they were relatively small, with an average length of 3 mum. Enumeration through direct counting and most probable number methods showed low numbers of fungi, between 0.01 and 1 cells mL(-1), at some sites. Five of the strains were characterized physiologically to determine whether they were adapted to life in the deep biosphere. These studies revealed that the strains grew within a pH range of 4-10, between temperatures of 4degreesC and 25-30degreesC, and in NaCl concentrations from 0 to 70 g L-1. These growth parameters suggest a degree of adaptation to the groundwater at Aspo HRL. Despite the fact that these eukaryotic microorganisms may be transient members of the deep biosphere microbial community, many of the observations of this study suggest that they are capable of growing in this extreme environment

Terrestrial runoff may reduce microbenthic net community productivity by increasing turbidity: a Mediterranean coastal lagoon mesocosm experiment

International audienceTerrestrial runoff into aquatic ecosystems may have both stimulatory and inhibitory effects, due to nutrient subsidies and increased light attenuation. To disentangle the effects of runoff on microbenthos, we added soil to coastal mesocosms and manipulated substrate depth. To test if fish interacted with runoff effects, we manipulated fish presence. Soil decreased microphytobenthic chlorophyll-a per area and per carbon (C) unit, increased microbenthic phosphorous (P), and reduced microbenthic nitrogen (N) content. Depth had a strong effect on the microbenthos, with shallow substrates exhibiting greater microbenthic net ecosystem production, gross primary production, and community respiration than deep substrates. Over time, micobenthic algae compensated for deeper substrate depth through increased chlorophyll-a synthesis, but despite algal shade compensation, the soil treatment still appeared to reduce the depth where microbenthos switched from net autotrophy to net heterotrophy. Fish interacted with soil in affecting microbenthic nutrient composition. Fish presence reduced microbenthic C/P ratios only in the no soil treatment, probably since soil nutrients masked the positive effects of fish excreta on microbenthos. Soil reduced microbenthic N/P ratios only in the absence of fish. Our study demonstrates the importance of light for the composition and productivity of microbenthos but finds little evidence for positive runoff subsidy effects