Entire Male Pigs

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
   1. Objectives
   2. Learning goals
   3. Teacher page
2. Entire Male Pigs
3. Castration of male pigs
   1. Statistics
4. Legislation and enforcement
5. Origin of boar taint
   1. Androstenone
   2. Skatole
6. Reasons for castration
   1. Increase the proportion of fat
   2. Increase consumer acceptance
   3. Reduce aggression
   4. Prevent unplanned breeding
7. Surgical castration
   1. Traditional surgical castration
   2. Anaesthesia combined with castration
   3. Gas analgesics
8. Problems related to surgical castration
   1. Animal welfare
   2. Pain and behaviour - the acute response
   3. Reduced growth rate and changed behaviour after surgery
   4. Health consequences
   5. Effect of age
   6. Consumer awareness
   7. Labour cost
9. Alternatives to castration
   1. Slaughter at lower weight
   2. On-line sorting
   3. Management
   4. Breeding and sperm sexing
   5. Perceptual masking of boar taint
   6. Immunocastration
   7. Immunocastration - physiology
   8. Immunocastration - practical implications
10. Completion
    1. Comments
    2. Self-assessment
    3. Key messages
    4. Further reading
    5. Evaluation
11. Acknowledgement

Learning goals

After working through this resource, employees in industry should be able to:

• demonstrate the reasons why the majority of male pigs are castrated and describe the problems related to castration
• suggest alternatives to surgical piglet castration
• discuss animal welfare in relation to the castration of male piglets.

After working through this resource, students in higher education should be able to:

• demonstrate the reasons why the majority of male piglets are castrated
• explain the origin of boar taint
• explain the methodology for and the problems related to surgical castration
• describe the alternatives to surgical piglet castration
• analyse the future methodology related to male pig production.