The importance of immunocastration in preventing boar taint
2012
Aleksić, Jelena (Faculty of Veterinary medicine, Belgrade (Serbia)) | Dokmanović, Marija (Faculty of Veterinary medicine, Belgrade (Serbia)) | Aleksić-Agelidis, Aleksandra (Faculty of Veterinary medicine, Belgrade (Serbia)) | Teodorović, Vlado (Faculty of Veterinary medicine, Belgrade (Serbia)) | Trbović, Dejana (Institute of Meat Technology and Hygiene, Belgrade (Serbia)) | Baltić, Milan Ž. (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Belgrade (Serbia))
The production of uncastrated male pigs shows some advantages compared with castrated ones in terms of efficiency, because the carcasses are leaner, the production costs are reduced and the animals grow faster (Desmoulin, 1983). However, castration of young male pigs is practiced in some European countries and in North America in order to avoid the occurrence of boar taint. Boar taint is caused by the naturally occurring compounds androstenone and skatole. The level of boar taint can be minimized by decreasing the concentrations of those compounds in adipose tissue, e.g. via immunocastration, genetic selection, dietary manipulation and improved rearing conditions. Meat processing can probably reduce or mask boar taint; however, more studies are needed to investigate possible processing techniques and consumers attitudes towards final pork product. At the moment, the best temporary solutions are “humane” castration using anaesthesia and analgesia, or immunocastration. It is generally believed that in the future, surgical castration of male piglets will be able to be avoided and will be replaced by practical and ethically acceptable alternatives. Currently the most practical option to avoid tainted meat is surgical castration of pigs with the use of anesthesia and analgesia (Zols et al., 2008) and the temporary suppression of testicular function by vaccination (immunocastration). The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of applying immunocastration to prevent boar taint from young boars.
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