Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 6/16/15


The production of organic non-castrated, intact pigs is less economically viable than that of a production system in which the males have been physically castrated, according to Danish researchers.

Scientists from Aarhus University in Denmark have carried out calculations of the economic viability of production of boars. The results have been published in a report by the Danish Center for Food and Agriculture.

The calculations showed that producing castrated finishing pigs with a final weight of 190 pounds (barrows) provided a gross margin of $55 per pig produced and $183 per allocated pen space per year. A production of pigs of equivalent weight at slaughter but not castrated provided a gross margin per pig of $28 and $94 per unit space.

The reason: 20.9 percent of the intact pigs had to be culled because of boar taint, the offensive odor created when pork is cooked.

To avoid boar taint Danish producers sometimes feed pigs either chicory or grain in the diet in last few days before slaughter and slaughter them at a lower weight, in this case at 134 pounds. Feeding grain to the pigs reduced the cull to 12.2 percent and feeding chicory reduced the cull to 8.6 percent. This was not sufficient to achieve the same gross margin as a production of organic barrows, according to the research.

The castrates had a poorer feed efficiency and thus higher feeding costs and a poorer lean meat percentage than non-castrated pigs, but since 99 percent of the castrates passed the boar taint test, this production form offered an economic advantage.
The reason for the poorer economy of a production without castration is that too many pigs have to be discarded at slaughter due to boar taint. This, despite the boars having a better feed efficiency and leaner meat than their castrated counterparts.

New technology eliminates boar taint
An innovative technology, immunocastration, that has grown in popularity across Europe as an alternative to physical castration. It is designed to allow pigs to remain intact while removing boar taint. Administered via injection, the drug that causes immunocastration leaves the pigs intact while working with the immune system to shut down the production of the compounds that cause boar taint.

The pig’s body identifies the foreign protein as an antigen. Various types of cells respond, triggering the production of antibodies. The immune system responds by creating an antibody against GnRF – halting the release of LH and FSH, and thereby preventing the release of testosterone and the subsequent release of skatole and androstenone.

The end result is a castrated pig that remains intact – nearly eliminating boar taint altogether while maintaining the benefits of an otherwise non-castrated pig: better feed conversion and improved average daily gain.

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