This article focuses on the meaning of sport activities for refugees living in a reception centre. We conceptualise the reception centre as a liminal space and analyse how this liminal space affects the meanings of sport activities for refugees. Based on interviews with refugees living in a reception centre we show how sport in this liminal space is to a large extent experienced as a way to overcome the boredom experienced at the centre, to forget about their daily struggles, but also has a large social function as it is an easy opportunity to meet with others. We argue that liminal spaces constrain the organisation of sport activities and its possibilities for realising sport’s ascribed positive spill-overs, such as increasing feelings of belonging. We call for future research, including creative social research approaches, that focus on refugees’ own narratives in order to better understand the role social space plays for the meaning of sport activities for this particular vulnerable group.

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) is a well-studied syndrome in domestic animals. EPI occurs when severe progressive loss of tubulo-acinar tissue from atrophy or inflammatory destruction results in insufficient secretion of digestive enzymes and clinical signs of malabsorption. However, the literature on EPI in birds is limited. The syndrome has been previously described in several cases where the diagnosis was based on clinical signs due to malabsorption-like light-coloured voluminous faeces, voracious appetite, coprophagia and weight loss, and on the response to treatment with pancreatic enzyme formulas. To enable a more scientific approach to the diagnosis of pancreatic functional disorders in pigeons, reference values of plasma amylase (382 to 556 IU/l), lipase (0 to 5 IU/l), and faecal activities of amylase (13 to 16 IU/l) and trypsin (11 to 14 IU/l) were determined in 24 adult pigeons. A case of EPI in a racing pigeon (Columba livia domestica) is reported, based on the clinical signs and the measurement of faecal amylase and trypsin activity.