Immunological castration education offered at pig farm

A demonstration farm in Greensburg, Ind., has opened to help broaden people’s understanding on the use of immunological castration (IC) in U.S. pork production systems. The 500-head nursery-to-finishing facility, owned by Larry Rueff, DVM, provides a real-world setting for pork producers to see Improvest in practice to better assess its merits as a production option.
Improvest, from Zoetis, is an veterinary prescription product, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that is a safe and effective alternative to physical castration.
“Improvest offers pork producers and meat packers a new and more sustainable way to manage the issue of off odors in pork,” said Gloria Basse, vice president, U.S. Pork Business Unit, Zoetis. “Because this is so revolutionary, Zoetis is committed to educating people across the entire pork chain to better understand the value that can be gained.”
Zoetis introduced Improvest in the U.S. market in 2011 following more than a decade of successful, widespread international use in more than 60 countries. This veterinary prescription product  uses the pig’s own immune system to temporarily provide the same effect as physical castration, but much later in a male pig’s life. Improvest expands production options while offering economic benefits favorable to producers. 
“We’ve long known about the inherent performance advantages of raising intact males,” said Dr. Rueff, a 30-year practicing veterinarian who co-manages Swine Veterinary Services in southern Indiana. Rueff is jointly supporting the demonstration farm by extending the use of an existing livestock barn on his 120-acre corn and soybean farm. “IC technology now allows producers to take advantage of these benefits while still ensuring the same high level of pork quality and great taste consumers have come to expect.”
As part of the experience, visitors will explore important production topics such as pre-weaning mortality, feed efficiency, split sex feeding and nutritional requirements. In addition, visitors will learn about recent research and field data specifically examining the economic benefits of Improvest. The intact males’ growth efficiencies offer opportunities for optimizing production due to feed savings, reduced piglet mortality and improved market weights.
 Through this farm experience, Zoetis hopes to instill confidence that pig performance and meat quality attributes can be maintained through IC technology, which allows producers to deliver a consistent pork supply to U.S. and global markets. It is effective in any production system, as demonstrated by the more than 200,000 IC pigs that have been harvested in the U.S. with Improvest.
 Zoetis welcomes visitors to the farm and encourages interested individuals to plan visits around key farm activities. These activities include a two-dose product administration, review of quality assurance protocols certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and an evaluation of IC barrow market weight characteristics.

Immunological castration shown to reduce stress in pigs

A recent study published in the Journal of Animal Science suggests immunologically castrated pigs are less susceptible to stress than physically castrated pigs.  This became evident as the immunologically castrated pigs were less vocal when workers entered their pens than pigs that were physically castrated.  Dr. Kimberly Guay, who co-authored the study, said high levels of vocalization in hogs are an accepted indicator of elevated stress.
Immunologically castrated pigs also showed more interest in their handlers. "They spent more time interacting with the humans - licking their boots, less shying away, and approaching handlers more quickly," said Guay. "They were certainly less shy."
The amount of time spent on pig-human contact did not differ between immunologically castrated pigs and physically castrated pigs, but the behavior of immunologically castrated pigs was more intense.  "That could indicate that they were less stressed about being handled," said Guay.
During transport to market, no immunologically castrated pigs were found "dead or down."  Among the pigs that were physically castrated, the dead and down rate was about 1 percent.

EU workshops focus on entire male pigs, boar taint

IRTA-Monells is sponsoring two boar taint workshops in Spain, December 2-3, the "EAAP working group on production and utilization of meat from entire male pigs" and on December 4, "International workshop on rapid detection methods."
Surgical castration has been long used to prevent consumers from experiencing boar taint in pork from entire male pigs, which is a large problem in the European pig industry.
Because of animal welfare issues, the European Union (EU) now wants an alternative to surgical castration. The European Commission and representatives of European pig farmers, meat industry, traders, retailers, scientists and NGOs have recently committed themselves to plan to voluntarily end surgical castration of pigs in Europe by January 1, 2018 (European Declaration on alternatives to surgical castration of pigs; SANCO 2010).
Regardless of future measures to reduce the incidence of boar taint at the production level (feeding regimes, selective breeding), there will be a need for rapid detection methods at the slaughter-line for sorting out tainted carcasses. This also provides an opportunity to have boar taint-free and quality assured products, that will contribute to consumers' acceptability of pork and pork products from entire male pigs. 

Danish Pig Research Centre aims to remove boar taint

With the abolishment of boar castration to improve animal welfare on the horizon in Europe, the Danish Pig Research Centre is looking into reducing the risk of boar taint through other methods, namely genomic selection.
Researchers from genetic research and development at the Danish Pig Research Centre are collaborating with Copenhagen University to implement genomic selection to reduce boar taint. With cutting-edge competence within for example other food products, animals and animal welfare, the Faculty of Life Sciences at Copenhagen University will be a strong partner.
Researchers will use genomic/DNA information to detect pigs that have a low risk of becoming contaminated with boar taint. These pigs will then be candidates for selection. The Danish Pig Research Centre expects that this project will reduce the risk of boar taint in boars that are not castrated.
In the longer term, DanBred, the brand owned by the Centre, hopes to export breeding stock with a low risk of developing boar taint. It also hopes that it will contribute to a sustainable pig production that considers social and environmental issues. 

Belgian supermarket chain to delist pork from castrated pigs

Belgium’s largest supermarket group is to cease selling pork from castrated pigs by the end of the year.
Pig farms that supply the Colruyt and Okay retail outlets have agreed to stop physical castration and will now use vaccination as their standard procedure for rearing male pigs to reduce boar taint in the meat.
Vaccination is said to offer a number of benefits beyond welfare improvements. Because boars are naturally more efficient, they need less feed and produce lean, high quality meat.
Less feed also means less cultivated land is needed and there is less waste, making the method more environmentally-friendly and more sustainable.