Boar fattening

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Boar fattening in Great Britain

When boar is called the mast male pigs in the agricultural branch of pig production . Traditionally, male piglets are surgically castrated to prevent the development of the boar odor , which many people find unpleasant . Since castration without anesthesia has been banned in Germany since January 1, 2019, there is an intense debate about alternatives, of which boar fattening is one. In terms of production technology, boar fattening is viewed as a practicable method by most farmers and also by agricultural advisors. So far, however, it has not been able to assert itself, because the food retailer did not include sausage and meat products from fattened boars in its range, with exceptions. In contrast, consumers showed a relatively high level of acceptance of the process in surveys and also in blind tastings .

In other countries, where the pigs of lower slaughter weight are usually slaughtered before they reach puberty, it is already an established procedure.

background

Until the 19th century, male piglets were castrated by pig tailors in many parts of what is now Germany and Austria . The main reason was to prevent the unplanned increase in the forest pastures during the acorn fattening that was common at the time . It was not until the middle of the 19th century that pigs were specifically bred and the previously mainly self-sufficient attitude shifted to food production for the growing cities. The castration of the male piglets was retained in order not to let the aggressiveness of the male animals arise (see section psychological effects in the article testosterone ) under the current housing conditions of many animals in a confined space and also to avoid the boar odor, which some consumers find annoying avoid.

The anesthetic-free surgical castration is sharply criticized by animal rights activists . In Austria, castration without anesthesia is allowed in the first seven days of the piglet's life, while it has been banned in Switzerland since 2010. With an amendment to the Animal Welfare Act , an exception was made for Germany that cattle, sheep and goats may continue to be castrated without anesthesia up to the age of four weeks. For pigs there is only one exception, which stipulates that the procedure can be carried out without anesthesia until they are seven days old. This regulation should expire on December 31, 2018, so that from January 1, 2019 at the latest, only alternative options would have been permitted. On November 29, 2018, the Bundestag decided to allow castration without anesthesia for a further two years.

From this point in time, it is planned to ban castration without anesthesia throughout the EU, with a few regional exceptions.

As alternatives are

  • as methods of castration with anesthesia and / or pain relief
    • Local anesthesia by icing or injection (prohibited from 2019)
    • General anesthesia as injection or inhalation anesthesia (only permitted by the veterinarian)
    • Painkillers (banned from 2019)

also in combination in discussion

and, in the long term, breeding on odorless boar meat is under discussion.

In the case of boar fattening, there is no medical intervention whatsoever. The advantages are the higher daily weight gain and the better feed conversion of the boars compared to neutered animals. To realize these advantages, however, the composition of the feed must be adapted to the different requirements and separate-sex fattening groups are necessary. The disadvantage is that the increased sexual behavior leads to increased restlessness and more frequent skin and penis injuries in the animals. Up to now (as of 2018) it has also been inevitable that up to five percent of carcasses show boar taint. This cannot yet be determined automatically in the slaughterhouse. Regardless of this, the changed fat quality means that certain fresh meat products can only be made from uncastrated boars to a limited extent.

In principle, boar fattening is an alternative to castration, but it has not yet been easily implemented. It would be an advantage here if the final fattening weight was lowered and the pigs were slaughtered earlier. Efforts are also being made to breed low-odor lines of boars, but these have to be continued in order to help solve the problem. In addition, an adapted feeding and husbandry management is necessary, which often requires an adaptation of the economic and structural framework conditions in agriculture.

Distribution in the main European countries with high pork production

In Great Britain and Ireland the piglets are not castrated, but fattened at lower slaughter weights than boars.

Situation in other EU countries in% of pigs kept (as of 2013)
country Castration
with anesthesia /
painkillers 		Boar fattening immunological
castration 		Remarks
Belgium 80 5 15th Only a few farmers are neutering in a pilot project under the anesthesia that is only allowed to one veterinarian. Most of them use pain relievers.
Denmark 99 1 - Use of pain medication and no anesthesia.
France 90 10 <1 Use of pain medication and no anesthesia. Immunocastration in a few test farms.
Netherlands 60 > 33 - No information for some of the establishments. Probably there will be neutered without anesthesia. Otherwise, the operational management is based on the planned export country. Boars are primarily fattened for exports to Great Britain.
Spain 2 80 3 15 percent of the pigs were castrated without anesthesia.
Germany 90 5 <1 Immunocastration in a few test farms. No data for some of the establishments. Probably castration without eliminating pain.

In contrast to the German legal situation, piglet producers in Denmark and the Netherlands are allowed to perform local anesthesia for castration themselves.

Acceptance of the procedure

At the consumer

In a study on the consumer acceptance of boar meat, most of the consumers surveyed had no prejudice against tasting it. In some cases, this was justified by the fact that the gender-typical smell was already known from the consumption of wild boar or mutton. During the subsequent product tasting, there were only a few differences in the rating of boar salami and salami from sows. In the blind tasting, 50% of the men and 70% of the women were able to correctly assign the origin.

At the farmer

As can be seen from the comparison of the prevalence of the process, farmers in various EU countries align their production processes in accordance with national legal requirements and market conditions.

With otherwise the same production parameters, boars have a lower feed consumption in comparison to neutered animals combined with a lower level of fatty tissue, so that in principle the farmer's income per animal would be higher. However, newly adapted accounting masks are required for this.

Tests in Germany showed a relatively wide range of results, with only around a third of the farms achieving better results than with neutered animals. The main problem is the lack of acceptance of the process by food retailers so far, which means that there are no sufficient sales opportunities for fattened boars for either the slaughterhouse or the farmer. In the spring of 2016, the interest group of pig farmers in Germany therefore called for an extension of the deadline beyond the date of January 1, 2019 planned today in order to create sales channels for boar meat before the ban on castration without anesthesia.

After no regulation was found by September 2018 that is both practical for the piglet producers and generally accepted by the consumer and the slaughterhouse, some pig farmers are considering giving up production.

In the meat processing industry

Tönnies , one of the largest German slaughterhouses, announced in August 2018 that it would process uncastrated boars in the future. At the same time, the company referred to the poorer slaughter yield of these animals and changed the price mask accordingly to take this into account.

In the Netherlands, where more than a third of male piglets are fattened as boars, the price paid for these animals was reduced in spring 2015, while it was increased for sows and Börge at the same time . At the same time, an increasing number of boars were delivered to the two German slaughterhouses, which slaughter them, and they also changed the price mask for the imported animals at relatively lower prices. This was justified with the increased delivery with simultaneous lack of acceptance of the meat and sausage products made from them in the retail trade.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wilhelm Pflanz: Alternative methods for piglet castration ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , aid infodienst , May 6, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aid.de
  2. ↑ taken from the documented article Sauschneider .
  3. ↑ Das Schwein - “Where does our schnitzel come from?” ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , information.medien.agrar, 2013; pdf; accessed on June 12, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ima-agrar.de
  4. ↑ Thorsten Scheimann: Piglet castration: The big mess , Der Tagesspiegel , January 25, 2011
  5. ↑ Animal Husbandry Ordinance, Annex 5, Item 2.10 ( online )
  6. ↑ Art. 32 of the Animal Welfare Ordinance 455.1 ( online )
  7. ↑ § 5 sentence 3 number 1
  8. ↑ § 6 sentence 1 number 2a
  9. ↑ § 21 sentence 1
  10. ↑ afp.com: Animals: Bundestag extends deadline for castration of piglets without anesthesia . In: welt.de . November 29, 2018, accessed November 30, 2018 .
  11. ^ Conference report on the day of the Baden-Württemberg pig breeding 2013 on March 21, 2013 in Boxberg, p. 2, pdf
  12. ↑ Conference report on the day of Baden-Württemberg pig breeding 2013 on March 21, 2013 in Boxberg, p. 5/6, pdf
  13. ^ A b Karl-Heinz Waldmann, Heidrun Potschka, Karl-Heinz Lahrmann, Sabine Kästner: Suckling pig castration under local anesthesia? - A situation analysis from a scientific point of view in Deutsches Tierärzteblatt , No. 9/2018, p. 1218
  14. ↑ Winfried Matthes, Dörte Uetrecht, Hanne Christina Schulz, Annemarie Müller, Henrik Delfs: Current results on boar fattening, conference report from the Pig Day Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in Güstrow on October 23, 2013, p. 5 ( online as a pdf ( Memento of the original from 12. June 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.landwirtschaft-mv.de
  15. ↑ Robert Römer: The exit from anesthetized piglet castration - European approaches and national solutions , presentation at the symposium "Dispensing with anesthetized piglet castration" on June 25, 2013, pp. 19-24 ( online as pdf )
  16. ↑ Theo Heitbaum: New law on piglet castration - sow owners are unsettled , at azonline.de , September 1, 2018; accessed on February 6, 2019
  17. ↑ Astrid Heid, Christine Brenninkmeyer, Ute Knierim, Ulrich Hamm: Alternatives to anesthetized piglet castration in organic farming - Analysis of the effects of alternative methods on acceptance among consumers and producers , Witzenhausen, March 2011, pp. 27–32 ( online as pdf )
  18. ↑ Friedhelm Adam, Christiane Schulze Horst Lange, Ludger Bütfering: Düsser results for boar , Agriculture of North Rhine-Westphalia , accessed on June 12, 2016
  19. ↑ Armin Schön, Heiko Janssen: Results from boar fattening in practice farms ( memento of the original from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lwk-niedersachsen.de archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture (pdf; accessed on June 12, 2016)
  20. ↑ How well is boar fattening really going? , top agrar , issue Südplus 03/2015
  21. ↑ Petition against the ban on anesthetized piglet castration , agrarheute .com, April 8, 2016
  22. ↑ Alfons Deter: Piglet producers' nerves are bare , top agrar online , September 2, 2018; accessed on September 7, 2018
  23. ↑ Marcus Arden: Tönnies accepts all masters, but changes the mask to top agrar online, August 28, 2018; accessed on September 7, 2018
  24. ↑ Full braking boar mast? - Next slaughterhouse in NL is cutting prices for boars , communication from the interest group of pig farmers in Germany dated April 8, 2015