July 13, 2009

Belgian slaughterhouses are slightly hesitant towards the newly launched vaccine against boar taint in the EU, the Flemish information centre for agri- and horticulture (VILT) reports.

The European Commission recently authorised the use of the vaccine, Improvac, and manufactured and distributed by Pfizer Animal Health. The vaccine can be used as alternative to un-anaesthesised piglet castration – and is intended to prevent boar taint.

The Federation for Belgian Meat (FEBEV) does cooperate to a trial of the Flemish Institute for Research in Agriculture and Fishery (ILVO), together with a couple of slaughterhouses.

FEBEV delegated board member Thierry Smagghe said that it is way too early to draw any conclusions on meat quality and potential extra profits as trials like these have not taken place before in Belgium with pietrain pigs before.

The practice of castration has been under severe pressure for many years now by animal welfare organisations throughout Europe.

In Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Norway, other alternatives to un-anaesthesised castration were already discussed before the authorisation of the vaccine. The Belgian animal rights organisation Gaia has pressed the Flemish pig industry to start using the vaccine against boar taint as quickly as possible.

Pfizer Animal Health has marketed the vaccine in many other countries throughout the world. The company reiterates that the vaccine itself is not a hormone, and is used to trigger a male pig's immune system to produce antibodies against 'gonadotrophin releasing factor' (GnRF), which stimulates the development and function of the testes.