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A review of the welfare consequences of surgical castration in piglets and the evaluation of non-surgical methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

A Prunier ,
M Bonneau ,
EH von Borell ,
S Cinotti ,
M Gunn ,
B Fredriksen ,
M Giersing ,
DB Morton ,
FAM Tuyttens  and
A Velarde
A Prunier*
Affiliation:
Unité Mixte de Recherche I.N.R.A. — Agrocampus, 35590 Saint-Gilles, France
M Bonneau
Affiliation:
Unité Mixte de Recherche I.N.R.A. — Agrocampus, 35590 Saint-Gilles, France
EH von Borell
Affiliation:
Institute of Animal Breeding and Husbandry with Veterinary Clinic, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Adam-Kuckhoff-Str. 35, 06108 Halle, Germany
S Cinotti
Affiliation:
Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria, Almamater Stunorum Universita, Via Tolara di Sopra 50, 40064 Ozzano Della Emilia, Italy
M Gunn
Affiliation:
Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Abbotstown, Castleknock, Dublin 15, Ireland
B Fredriksen
Affiliation:
The Norwegian Meat Research Centre, PO Box 396 – Ökern, 0513 Oslo, Norway
M Giersing
Affiliation:
Royal Veterinary & Agriculture University, Department of Large Animal Science, Grønnegardsvej 8, Frederiksberg C 1870, Denmark
DB Morton
Affiliation:
Department of Biomedical Science and Biomedical, Ethics Medical School, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
FAM Tuyttens
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanisation–Labour–Buildings–Animal Welfare and Environmental Protection (DVL), Agricultural Research Centre (CLO), Burg Van Gansberghelaan 115, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
A Velarde
Affiliation:
Centre de Tecnologia de la Carn, IRTA, Granja Camps i Armet, 17121 Monells, Girona, Spain
*
* Correspondence and requests for reprints: Armelle.Prunier@rennes.inra.fr
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Abstract

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Male piglets are castrated primarily to prevent the unpleasant odours and flavours of entire male pig meat (boar-taint). Although castration can be legally performed without analgesia in the first seven days of life, available evidence shows that castration at any age is painful and may have a detrimental influence on health. Few anaesthetics or analgesics are licensed for use in piglets. The known methods for general and epidural anaesthesia cannot be run at the farm level for practical and/or legal reasons. Use of the local anaesthetic lidocaine is easy and allows the pain resulting from castration to be alleviated. Local destruction of testicular tissue by intra-testicular injection of chemical compounds (salts and acids) is an alternative to surgical castration but needs further investigation regarding welfare improvement and boar taint reduction. Immunocastration, by which castration is achieved using active immunisation (anti–GnRH immunisation) is an efficient alternative to surgical castration; however, there are no licensed vaccines in the EU and the consequences, in terms of pig welfare as well as its acceptability among EU consumers, need further evaluation.

Keywords

animal welfareimmunisationnon-surgical castrationpainpigletsurgical castration
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , August 2006 , pp. 277 - 289
Copyright
© 2006 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

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