March 2, 2010

Dutch evaluates anaesthesised piglet castration

The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture (LNV) considers the use of CO2 gas to anaesthesise male piglets before castration an adequate temporal solution until a full ban on castration is reached in 2015.

Piglet castration is considered to be necessary as there is a chance that during cooking pork there may be a chance of boar taint. At the end of 2007, the Dutch retailers, processing industry and pig industry agreed to stop castrating by 2015 and until that date to castrate using anaesthetics.

This method now has been evaluated by the Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI), part of Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR).

Meanwhile, the Dutch agri- and horticultural organisation (LTO) and the Dutch union for pig producers (NVV) have also responded by creating an action plan around the theme of anaesthesised castration.