European hog farmers face a ban on castration
within the next two to five years, so there is keen interest in a report on
alternatives from the Danish Center for Food and Agriculture at Aarhus
University.
There ought to also be keen interest in Canada
and the U.S. because animal welfare organizations are pushing hard for a ban on
castration. They have won the battle over crates to house gestating sows and
castration is next on their list of priorities.
The Danes say immunological castration may
be implemented within two to five years and that it would improve animal
welfare compared to surgical castration.
But they said that will still leave issues of
aggression and sexual mounting.
At the University of Guelph, Jim Squires
continues to make progress with genetic identification of pigs that can reach
market weight without lacing pork with the offensive odours that are emitted
during cooking.
That raises the possibility of doing nothing to
the males and still producing high-quality lean pork at reduced costs because
of improved feed efficiency and no castration-trauma setbacks.
