Piglet castration: small cut with big effect

Article by Gerhard Pfeffer

Pigs have been kept in Europe for around 8,000 years - and for centuries the male animals have been castrated by removing both testicles. Since 2006, castration without anesthesia has only been permitted in the first seven days of a pig's life, and since 2008 at least all piglets from quality seal programs have also been treated with a painkiller. Now, castration of piglets without anesthesia has been completely banned since January 1, 2021. But what does this new requirement mean?

With the amendment of the German Animal Welfare Act in 2013, castration of piglets without anesthesia was finally banned in Germany with effect from January 1, 2021. You have to know that we have one of the most ambitious animal welfare laws in the EU, which defines exactly "effective pain relief". In other EU countries, however, "pain relief" is considered sufficient. So the ban is initially a good thing and serves to improve animal welfare. After all, you don't want one-sided, sexual preference for female animals, as has long been the case with poultry. Because in my eyes that is also animal welfare!
Together with scientists, politicians and market participants, we have struggled for a long time to find the right alternative procedures. As a result, however, with the new, higher standard in Germany, we have now created a case of distortion of competition within Europe. Germany imports eleven million piglets from Holland and Denmark alone every year. For the sake of fairness, the requirements should therefore apply one-to-one to all producers who want to market their animals in this country. Every consumer understands this animal protection regulation, but it is not easy for them to know in which EU country the piglet whose meat they are currently consuming was born. And that is precisely where the problem lies! In the eyes of meat eaters, and the grill and BBQ scene is one of them, animal protection is a chapter that cannot be neglected. Regardless of the country of birth of the animal, it simply has to be right - along with quality, taste and smell.

Can pork from male animals really stink?
To get straight to the point: Yes, it can! This is the hormonally caused sexual odor that develops when the male animal reaches sexual maturity.
Nobody wants to experience a nice pork neck, slowly cooked on the grill for ten hours, that turns into "stinking pork" instead of "pulled pork" because it smells atypically of urine or sweat. The party is literally ruined. Some people may have doubted their cooking skills in this case. But the cause is something else: the smell of sex!
What makes matters worse is that this smell is perceived and interpreted in completely different ways by different people. Boar smell (the main component is the hormone androstenone), which is mainly formed when heated, is only correctly perceived by around 30% of the EU population. Differences in sensory sensitivities have been identified not only between women and men, but also between residents of different countries. It is therefore quite possible that the same piece of meat is classified as "unfit for consumption" by one person and "untasteful" by another. There are countries that have been fattening boars for a long time, whose residents have become accustomed to a certain smell threshold and where the acceptance level is therefore higher. Nevertheless, no consumer accepts the real, sometimes disgusting stinkers. They have to be sorted out and put to another use. In order to be able to use such boar meat as food, high core temperatures (120 °C) and strong spice and herb mixtures (sage, rosemary, nutmeg, oregano, etc.) must be used. In addition, the products should be consumed as cold as possible afterwards. This significantly limits the possible uses!

Which procedures are permitted?
The law was originally supposed to come into force in 2019, but at the end of 2018 there was a two-year extension... Would you like to read on? You can find the entire article on the subject of "piglet castration" in issue 01/2021 of FIRE&FOOD magazine. Available as a printed or digital single issue HERE in our shop.