It is widely reported that the meat of some whole male pigs has an unpleasant smell or smell – «boar taste». Studies were conducted to address the reduction in meat quality that was reportedly seen in male pigs, which was largely responsible for the lack of castration in the UK, in addition to the costs saved by not performing the procedure. However, in some countries and cultures, the smell of wild boar is a significant stumbling block to the use of uncastrated male pigs for meat production. Developments in Germany are the biggest challenge for the Dutch pig industry. Their original law banning castration was postponed for two years. It is not entirely certain that it will actually be implemented. (NL-ST) Local anesthetics are effective when pigs are treated to administer the drug (which is stressful) and the handler has to wait for the local drug to take effect. Then the pigs are affected again (another burden) and the procedure is carried out (with less pain). This double manipulation and the stress of injecting a local anesthetic into the testicles and scrotum make this option less than desirable.
Animal rights group WELFARM has identified this missing link between farmers and slaughterhouses. After six years of campaigning and communication activities related to castration, the organization is now in contact with several farmers, slaughterhouses and retailers. WELFARM is able to take on a partial coordinating role and help some farmers to get in touch with independent slaughterhouses willing to take in whole males. The person in charge of the castration campaign explained how they played their role in coordinating with the industry: Skatole (3-methyl-indole) is a metabolite of the amino acid tryptophan with a fecal odor [15]. It is synthesized in the colon by microbial degradation of the indigestible but fermentable part of the food and intestinal cellular debris. Skatole is absorbed through the colon and circulates in the bloodstream, where it can be catabolized by the liver or reversibly stored in adipose tissue. The main reason why whole male pigs have higher levels of skatole in adipose tissue than carts or gilts is that hepatic degradation of skatole is reduced due to inhibition of catabolic enzyme activity by androstenone, testosterone or 17β-estradiol [16,17,18,19]. Skatole concentrations in fat in whole male pigs range from 0.01 to 0.02 μg/g to 0.5 to 1.0 μg/g, corresponding to a log-normal distribution [11].
The great variability in human perception of androstenone odor does not exist for skatol: most consumers do not like the smell and taste of meat that has a high skatole content [7,20]. Regarding Germany`s influence on France, most experts were convinced that the possibility of Germany delaying the implementation of the castration ban would not have much impact on the French pork industry. Indeed, the French pig sector is not heavily dependent on exports to Germany. Since the sixties, farmers in Britain and Ireland have raised only whole males to benefit from their much higher efficiency in producing lean meat. At that time, slaughter weights in these countries were much lower than in continental Europe, and therefore the appearance of boar smell was very low. Although slaughter weight in the UK and Ireland has increased significantly since then, currently almost 100% of males in these countries are still whole. Also in Spain, Portugal and Greece, castration in traditional standard production has been abandoned for the same reasons. However, surgical castration is still practiced to some extent in these countries, especially in high-quality production systems where animals are slaughtered with a much higher slaughter weight, when the appearance of a boar smell is much more likely. Most high-quality products also require large amounts of unsaturated fatty acids, which are more easily obtained from castrati. Pig production in Italy is unique in that it uses very high slaughter weights. Whole males with such weights are all sexually mature and therefore have a high risk of boar smell and show very aggressive and increasing behavior. In addition, whole males provide less fat, which is more unsaturated, which is not suitable for the production of high-quality dry-drying products typical of Italy.
For all these reasons, Italian actors are very reluctant to abandon surgical castration. Animal interest groups are convinced that raising piglets as whole males has the advantage of avoiding castration pain and preserving the integrity of the animals. When asked about the organization`s opinion on the immunocastration method, the DSPA pointed out that the method is another way to change animals for human needs. If there is an alternative that can preserve the intrinsic value of an animal (as is the case with the all-male method), the industry should work to adopt it. As one DSPA expert argues: As with other farmed species, castration of male pigs can have management and behavioural benefits. Whole male pigs are more likely to fight and show aggressive and sexual behavior, when kept with female pigs, they exhibit sexual behavior that can cause injury and stress. There is evidence that female pigs kept in the presence of whole males enter puberty earlier, triggering active sexual behavior problems. Keeping male and female pigs separately can be difficult in some management systems. Immunocastration is less painful to the animal than surgical castration without pain relief [1], although mild side effects may be observed at the vaccination site [45,58].
After the second vaccination, pigs do not exhibit aggressive behavior typical of all males, which is also beneficial for animal welfare. The economic benefits arising from the period prior to the second vaccination, when animals are biologically similar to whole males, are less than in whole males, but remain present unless the second vaccination is carried out well before slaughter. [30,47]. The quality of the meat (muscle and fat) is close to that of surgical castrati. In particular, the intramuscular fat content is usually closer in surgical castrati than in whole males, which is favorable for meat quality. The cost of two (or three) vaccine syringes added to the labour cost to administer the vaccines is a disadvantage. The second vaccination, which is carried out on fairly heavy animals, can be tedious. It is even worse if a third vaccination is required in heavy pigs.
After the second vaccination, follow-up should be done to identify non-responders based on their behavior and testicular size: this is extra work. Finally, the risk of self-injection for workers, although very unlikely, can also be considered a disadvantage of the procedure [47]. In France, the industry does not seem very interested in the alternative of immunocastration. So far, only a few local production lines use this method. According to an estimate by a Zoetis manager, the market is below 1%. The company is currently less actively involved in the subject than it was 10 years ago: we had some results and published them in a national journal to convey new knowledge. We wanted to show what is happening in Europe in relation to this issue and raise awareness that this will be a problem in pig production. We were then attacked, especially by small farmers, who questioned our motivation, as if we were promoting immunocastration – that we were promoting certain changes, as if we were responsible for what was happening, that we were forcing them to introduce the changes. (SI-ST) The current situation in Europe regarding the use of surgical castration and its various alternatives was observed in 2008 [67] and 2016 [4] and reviewed in 2015 [29]. Relevant information can also be found in a recent document reviewing best practices in this area [30]. The shift from castration to all-male production in the Netherlands [36], northern Germany [49] and Cooperl implies that production actors belonging to the efficiency-oriented system are motivated by economic motives, which stimulates actors in the chain to jointly implement the all-male production method. The male-only solution is particularly complex because it requires effort from several parts of the chain [53].
The advantage of the solution is that it reduces costs (and therefore profit) for efficiency-oriented production systems (and thus increases profit). While large vertically integrated companies took the lead in France and Germany (a German retailer in the North/South and North respectively). Cooperl), this role has been taken over in the Netherlands by a respected animal welfare organisation (DSPA). These positive examples indicate that an effective coordination system plays a crucial role in the implementation of the all-male solution. Painful castration of male piglets to avoid the smell of wild boar can potentially be replaced with three additional ethical alternatives: pain relief during and after castration, rearing whole males, and administering vaccines. In order to ensure that pigs and pork products can be marketed with the lowest possible barriers, the European Commission prefers to adopt a single solution for the whole of the European Union. However, each alternative has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the production chains of the different Member States do not agree on which alternative to choose.