The amount of attention paid to the welfare of animals and their maintenance conditions has grown considerably in recent years. This paper examines the effects of extensive and intensive housing systems on the environmental, behavioural, health, nutritional and social aspects of sheep welfare. It presents the current state of knowledge regarding this welfare, and its significant contributing factors, based on a search of PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus using defined keywords. It compares the impact of the two systems on the physical, psychological and social comfort of the animals, and identifies husbandry practices conducive to improving welfare. In doing so, it pays particular attention to the role of social bonding and the importance of grooming interventions. The paper reviews the factors shaping welfare in different production systems, with a particular focus on extensive and intensive rearing. It demonstrates that while the extensive system is conducive to the realisation of natural behaviour and the formation of social bonds, it can also be associated with a higher risk of nutritional deficiencies and environmental stressors. In contrast, an intensive system allows better control of health and nutrition, but often limits the ability to meet behavioural needs. The study also discusses the importance of feeding strategies, herd structure and thermal comfort, as well as the impact of routines such as shearing and hoof correction. It demonstrates that high levels of welfare can be achieved in both extensive and intensive systems, provided that husbandry practices are appropriately adapted to the needs of sheep as a species.

The aim of this study was to compare the species composition of gastrointestinal parasites in wild boar feeding in the city of Szczecin with those in its suburban area, as well as to determine the prevalence and intensity of this parasite infection. The intestines and stomachs of 57 wild boars were supplied by a municipal hunter from the city of Szczecin. Both analysed groups of animals were infected with the following parasites: Eimeria debliecki, E. suis, E. polita, E. scabra, Isospora suis, Ascaris suum and Oesophagostomum dentatum. Wild boar from the city were characterised as having a significantly higher prevalence of total Eimeria (p = 0.04) and a lower prevalence of noted species of nematodes (p = 0.15) compared to those from the suburban area. Since the wild boars were mainly infected with Eimeria, it should be assumed that they may pose a real health threat to farm pigs and other farm animals for which Eimeria is a pathogenic parasite. The occurrence of coccidiosis leads to serious health problems and economic losses for breeders. Although the prevalence of A. suum was low, it should be taken into account that this nematode is able to both infect and complete their life cycle in humans.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of artificially extended daylight applied during pregnancy on reproductive performance in farmed mink. The material consisted of 536 female Black (or “short NAP”) mink aged 2 years. To analyse the reproductive performance, we selected females mated twice during the period 13 to 17 March. Energy-saving bulbs of 11 watts each (equivalent to traditional 60-watt bulbs) were placed above the cages of the females. The experiment involved two groups of females: the control group (n = 258) were females kept under natural daylight throughout pregnancy; the females of the treatment group (n = 278) were additionally subjected to extended photoperiod - up to 16 hours of light per day, applied from 20 March to 15 April. Selected reproduction indicators were analysed among the groups. The extended daylight applied during pregnancy of mink positively influenced many of the analysed indices. The duration of diapause and related total length of gestation decreased, the litter size - both at birth and at weaning - significantly increased. Pre-weaning mortality of young and the proportion of nonbreeding females slightly decreased as a result of the treatment, which from the practical point of view might be seen as a beneficial effect; however, these parameters are shaped by other factors than photoperiod. The whelping season was both commenced and completed earlier among females subjected to extra light during pregnancy, which improved the organization of work on the farm. Artificial illumination of pregnant mink in Poland’s climate can be applied with great success and introducing this treatment to the mink breeding technology on a permanent basis should be seriously considered.

The aim of the study was observation of the effect of light modulation on blood testosterone levels and libido in male American mink. The study was performed on 64 Black Velvet male mink on a farm located in the north-west of Poland. Day length was modified using artificial lighting placed above mink cages. Two variants of lighting programs were applied to males: (I) from 8 of February and (II) from 12 of February. In order to measure blood testosterone concentration samples were collected from males of the experimental groups and the control groups (animals kept under natural light conditions). As a result of the experiment, the males subjected to extended lighting were found to have had slightly higher libido than those outside the treatment, although no strong or clear effect of lighting on the pattern of testosterone levels in male mink has been found. It remains unexplained whether slightly, non-significantly higher libido of the experimental males is related to the applied modulation of photoperiod. In order to unambiguously clarify the effect of day light modulation on the results of males sexual activity, further studies should be performed on a larger population and possibly using modified extended lighting programs.

The aim of this study was to determine whether blood plasma progesterone is a reliable indicator of pregnancy in mink at an early stage of gestation. We also attempted to establish the threshold value of progesterone as a pregnancy indicator. The analysis was carried out at a production farm on 42 standard female mink aged 1 year, which were grouped both according to the observed success of mating ("mated" and "unmated") and the level of blood serum progesterone measured afterwards ("pregnant" and "nonpregnant"). It was next verified whether a particular female had been assigned to the proper group in the first place. An analysis of accuracy of mating success assessment within the group of unmated females revealed that more than one-third of decisions were wrong, since some females that had been considered unmated ultimately whelped. This suggests that mating supervision by farm workers lacks reliability. A progesterone test for verification of such management decisions should limit the risk of err,or. We suggest that progesterone tests could be carried out using the threshold values 1.9 ng/ml and 20 ng/ml in blood sampled on 25 March and 8 April, respectively, although some level of uncertainty should be taken into account.