Alternatives to unanaesthetised castration piglets

Commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (NLV), the Animal Sciences Group at Wageningen UR is researching (new) methods of castrating young piglets under anaesthetic. Anaesthetising the animals with a low concentration of CO2 (gas), is one of the short-term solutions.

Progress is also being made in the search for a long-term solution: genetic selection. In time, this will make castrating young piglets unnecessary and so this practice may possibly be banned. Alongside the Animal Sciences Group, the project group also includes the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Utrecht and the Agricultural Economic Research Institute (LEI). The support group includes participants from the Dutch Animal Protection Agency, Biologica, Albert Heijn and Unilever.

“The unanaesthetised castration of young, male piglets is a painful operation, which we want to abolish as soon as possible. This opinion is shared by farmers, slaughterhouses, the retail sector, the government and the general public. However, it is a complex problem. If animals are left uncastrated, 5 to 10% of the meat produced by male pig gives off an pungent, unpleasant smell when cooked”, explains Hans Spoolder, researcher into animal welfare at the Animal Sciences Group. “This makes the meat unsaleable, so at the present time castrating young piglets without using anaesthetic is a standard practice in most European countries. We have been trying to find a solution to this problem in the Netherlands since 2004.”

The long-term aim is to eradicate the need to castrate at all. Research is being done into the possibility of solving the problem of this odour using a combination of methods: genetic selection, detection at slaughterhouse level, modified feed and the way pigs are housed at the farm. According to Gé Backus of the LEI, the Dutch pig sector is leading the way towards placing this issue on the European agenda. For this reason the sector needs the support of social organisations.

“Breeding offers excellent perspectives, but only in the long term ”, expects Roel Veerkamp. “The breeding organisation that succeeds in breeding boars without the typical boar odour in 5 to 10 years will hold all the aces.”

The Animal Sciences Group is working on 2 methods that should make this possible. Firstly, the Animal Sciences Group has discovered a gene that is important for the production of boar odour. Within a year it will be apparent if this gene has variants able to solve the problem. If so, the breeding organisations can actually get to work on ridding meat of the typical boar odour.

“The second method uses new technology which enables us to include variations of the entire genome. Developments in the domain of Genomic Selection take place so quickly that we expect the practical solution to be found here,” says Veerkamp.

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Alternatives to unanaesthetised castration piglets