77% of European pigs are castrated without anesthetic

4 January 2010

A scientific team has collected information on the conditions of castration on European pigs.

The main conclusion of the study is that these animals are castrated directly by the livestock farmers, without anaesthetic and in some cases, without respecting the European legislation.

Norway and Switzerland have banned surgical castration without anaesthetic to prevent pigs from suffering and now they are looking into enabling the breeding of intact males (without castrating).

In Spain roughly 30% of male pigs for conventional production are castrated. The most common method is surgical castration without anaesthetic. In non-conventional production, which includes large-scale pig breeding, almost all the males are castrated, as they are slaughtered at heavy weights for the production of high-quality cured products.

In 88% of the cases analysed in Europe it is the livestock farmers themselves who carry out the castration. This is due to the demands of the market. This way the sexual smell is avoided, a sensorial defect in the meat of some male pigs that are not castrated, it can allow for a better handling of the animals in the farm and it results in the meat containing more fat and finer marbling, a characteristic which is valued in cured products.

The European Union recently authorised the immunocastration, an alternative to surgical castration which has been used for years in Australia and New Zealand, and which involves vaccinating the pigs to reduce the production of the chemical compounds responsible for the "boar taint" from the meat.

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