The Effect of Testosterone and Castration on the Growth and Carcass Characteristics of Swine

The effect of sex on growth and carcass quality in the bacon pig

“…Charette (1961), but only some of these experiments involved the use of modern pig diets and Lamming (1963) has shown that the growth of the entire male is reduced at levels of dietary protein sufficient for satisfactory growth in the castrate. Our findings on feed-conversion efficiency agree with those of Wallace (1944) and Charette (1961) and contrary findings such as those of Bratzler et al (1954) are possibly due to errors in recording feed intakes because the animals were self-fed on pasture.…”

“…Similar indications have been reported from Progeny Testing Stations (Nilsson, 1961). There are conflicting reports on the incidence of 'boar taint' in the meat of uncastrated males (Bratzler, Soule, Reineke & Paul, 1954;Christian & Turk, 1957;Cahill et al 1959;Cahill et al 1960;Charette, 1961;Williams, Pearson & Webb, 1961;Williams, Pearson & Webb, 1963) but the balance of experimental evidence suggests that taint is less prevalent than hitherto supposed.…”

Influence of Late Castration and Diethylstilbestrol Implantation on Performance of Boars and on Incidence of Boar Taint

“…Negative but nonsignificant correlations (r --.41 afld r: -.48) for weight and degree of taint were found for implanted and castrated boars. Correlation between the olfactory evaluation of the more highly trained panel and the quantity of Sa-androst-16-en-3-one as determined by gas-liquid chromzrtographic (CLC) analysis was r : .53 ( (Bratzler et al 1954 (Newell and Bowland 1972b However, the odor of boar fat may not be solely the result of this steroid (Patterson 1967). Bratzler et al (1954) reported that no boar taint was present in boars castrated at 82 kg and slaughtered 2I-44 days later at a weight of 100 kg.…”

“…Correlation between the olfactory evaluation of the more highly trained panel and the quantity of Sa-androst-16-en-3-one as determined by gas-liquid chromzrtographic (CLC) analysis was r : .53 ( (Bratzler et al 1954 (Newell and Bowland 1972b However, the odor of boar fat may not be solely the result of this steroid (Patterson 1967). Bratzler et al (1954) reported that no boar taint was present in boars castrated at 82 kg and slaughtered 2I-44 days later at a weight of 100 kg. DES implantation has also been reported to significantly decrease the intensity of taint (Plimpton et al 1967;Teague et al 1964), although the mechanism of action is not known (Gower 1972 …”

Effect of Linecross and Delayed Castration on Growth and Carcass Traits in Boars and Barrows

“…Factors affecting the influence of castration include the age at which castration occurs (Turton 1969), the breed or breed-cross of the male pigs, and the potential interaction between age at castration and breed or breed-cross. Bratzler et al (1954) Prior to analysis, the frozen samples were allowed to thaw for 48 hat l-2'C and cut into two, For personal use only.…”