Abstract
From 2021 onwards, surgical castration of male piglets without pain relief will be banned in Germany. In Europe, stakeholders have committed themselves to end piglet castration from 2018 onwards. Alternatives to surgical castration are pork production with boars or immunocastrates. The competitiveness of these production systems is required to increase their market acceptance. The aim of this study was to test the profitability of pork production with boars and immunocastrates under different carcass pricing systems and penalty systems linked to boar taint. The calculations were based on the performance parameters of 36 animals (n = 12 immunocastrates, n = 12 boars, n = 12 barrows) from an experimental study. In order to analyze the economic effects of both alternatives under different regional German production systems, the performance data were set in relation to the data of agri benchmark. Both boars and immunocastrates performed economically worse than barrows in all the scenarios tested. If immunocastrates are sold according to the boar pricing system, the profitability of this technique is even lower, but still more profitable than boar fattening. Pork production with boars is the most unprofitable alternative in this study and will be further devalued if a penalty system linked to boar taint will be introduced.
Highlights
For German pork production, about 80% of all male piglets are surgically castrated within their first week of life [1,2]
The aim of this study was to test the profitability of pork production with boars and immunocastrates under different carcass pricing systems and penalty systems linked to boar taint
This study illustrates that pork production with immunocastrates or boars is economically less profitable under the assumed performance and market criteria compared to the pork production with barrows as the baseline
Summary
For German pork production, about 80% of all male piglets are surgically castrated within their first week of life [1,2]. In September 2009, this led German stakeholders of the pork chain to commit to the goal of ending surgical castration of piglets in the so-called ‘Düsseldorfer Erklärung’ [4]. These developments have resulted in an amendment of the German animal protection law in 2013. The German government stated that there are no competitive alternatives available, and that a prohibition of surgical castration without pain-relief could have a negative impact on German pig production [6]
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