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

Effect of age

In 65% of EU countries, the mean age at castration is estimated to be between 3 and 7 days after birth in conventional production (Fredriksen et al., 2009). However, age at castration varied widely both within and between countries: nations with a higher estimated mean age are Portugal (17 days), Poland (12 days), Norway (10 days), Lithuania (9 days), the Czech Republic (9 days) and Hungary (8.5 days).

In 62% of countries, castration was reported to be performed more than 2 weeks after birth in a minor part of production. EFSA (2004) reported that some producers may carry out castration of piglets later than the first week of life because the testes are bigger, planning of the work is easier and the risks of medical problems are reduced when the animal is larger (but there is no scientific literature available on this).