Practice on castration of piglets in Europe

Abstract

PIGCAS (Attitudes, practices and state of the art regarding piglet castration in Europe) is to our knowledge the first project that has focused on castration practice across European countries (European Union minus Bulgaria, Malta and Romania, plus Norway and Switzerland). About 250 million pigs are slaughtered in Europe each year. Of the 125 million male pigs, approximately 20% are left entire, less than 3% are castrated with anaesthesia and the rest is castrated without anaesthesia. The study identified large variations in castration procedures, both within and between countries. In females, castration is very rare, but is practiced without anaesthesia in special breeds/production systems in some of the southern countries.

Influence of sex and immunocastration on feed intake behavior, skatole and indole concentrations in adipose tissue of pigs

“…Previously, the discussion has been more focused on the economic advantage of entire male production because of their improved growth performance in contrast to detrimental effects of boar taint due to elevated concentrations of androstenone, indole and skatole in pork meat. Today, animal welfare aspects predominate in the discussion (Fredriksen et al, 2009). Surgical castration of male piglets without anesthesia, as carried out, for example, traditionally in Germany, is not accepted by animal welfare organizations and an increasing number of consumers (Prunier et al, 2006;Zamaratskaia et al, 2008a;von Borell et al, 2009).…”

A performance test for boar taint compounds in live boars

“…Approximately 80% of the 125 million boars annually slaughtered in Europe are surgically castrated, predominantly without the use of anaesthesia (Fredriksen et al, 2009). Because of increasing animal welfare awareness, a general consensus to discontinue surgical castration by 2018 was taken by many European stakeholders.…”

Minimising pain in farm animals: the 3S approach – ‘Suppress, Substitute, Soothe’

“…Approximately 80% of the 250 million male piglets that are reared yearly in the EU countries are castrated surgically (Fredriksen et al, 2009). In many countries, pigs for meat production are usually slaughtered at 100 to 115 kg live weight at an age of 150 to 160 days when testes are well developed and secrete sex steroids.…”

“…Rearing entire males has advantages in terms of work load, pain, animal health and feed efficiency, but may also cause problems as indicated above (EFSA, 2004a;von Borell et al, 2009;Zamaratskaia and Squires, 2009). Rearing entire males is systematically applied in United Kingdom and Ireland or at a very large scale in some southern countries like Spain and Portugal (Fredriksen et al, 2008). To reduce the risk of boar taint, pigs are slaughtered at a slightly lower weight than in other European countries.…”