July 10, 2012

Germany's pork market is working towards eradicating the practice of castrating male piglets.

An increasing amount of relevant parties are observed to be involved. This became clear at a fifth meeting between representatives of the German and Dutch pig industries, at the end of last month.

Gé Backus, manager Consumer and Behaviour at Wageningen UR's Agricultural Economic Research Institute, the Netherlands, stated that scientific surveys in both the Netherlands as Germany support the view that meat from uncastrated boars is being accepted by the market.

Germany would like to ban unanaesthesised castration as from 2017. According to the voluntary and ambitious Declaration of Brussels, the EU as a whole will stop castrating as from 2018.