This paper reviews the available knowledge on nutritional requirements of non-surgically castrated male pigs to promote their potential for higher feed efficiency while ensuring low risk of boar taint and good carcass and meat qualities. Reasons for giving entire males ad libitum access to diets...

Painful castration of male piglets to avoid boar taint can potentially be replaced by three more ethical alternatives: entire male production in combination with a detection method, immunocastration (an active vaccination against the gonadotrophin-releasing factor, GnRF), and castration with pain...

The question we were going to answer was whether the combination of immunocastration and dry or wet diet can help us deepen further the reduction of the boar taint following immunocastration. Immunocastration is an alternative to surgical castration. It has been agreed that its use heightens animal ...

To prevent boar taint, male piglets are commonly castrated without pain relief, causing them tremendous pain. There are, however, three alternatives, all of which have pros and cons: (1) surgical castration (SC) with pain relief, which removes boar taint but involves extra work for farmers and...

Immunocastration, a technique consisting of two vaccinations against gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), can be used as alternative to surgical castration of piglets. It reduces boar taint and allows higher economic and ecological efficiency compared to barrows. The feeding strategy of...

Finishing entire male pigs after puberty is not common in Europe due to aggression and boar taint. Alternatives to surgical castration or immunocastration should be explored as the production of entire males can also increase the productivity and sustainability of swine production. This study...

Male piglets are castrated primarily to avoid the unpleasant boar taint in meat, and additionally for the predisposition of castrates to accumulate fat and for their lower risk of developing unwanted behaviours. There are two main strategies available for withdrawing from surgical castration: one...

This article reviews the advantages and disadvantages of various alternatives to the surgical castration of piglets. Producers use castrations against boar taint which is present in the meat. Alternative methods could be immunocastration, production with entire male pigs or castration with...

Historically, in the pig and cattle industry, traditional physical and bloody castration has been used for different purposes; in pigs to eliminate boar taint and in cattle to control aggressive behavior, sexual behavior and to improve meat quality. Since the end of the 1990s, Zoetis laboratories...

Two experiments were carried out; one with female pigs and the other with male pigs destined for Teruel dry-cured ham production, to evaluate the effect of immunocastration (entire gilts-EG vs. immunocastrated gilts-IG and surgically castrated males vs. immunocastrated males-IM) and diet (control...