Abstract
Animal welfare in livestock farming is a general concept that involves many concrete ethical issues for which solutions need to be developed. To avoid disturbing the internal market, the European Union encourages market players to develop harmonized solutions to such issues. One issue is the castration of piglets without pain relief, the practice of which causes pain to piglets. Although scientists have found alternatives to replace castration without pain relief, the process of solving the castration issue has stagnated. Questions remain as to why this painful castration practice has still not been addressed after three decades, how it is likely to develop in the near future, and whether it will lead to a single harmonized solution for the EU. To answer these questions, this study examines the development of the castration issue using in-depth interviews and desk research. The results show that different countries have developed different solutions at different stages of the issue’s development. For a long period, the developments did not set a course toward a single solution; most EU pork producers waited for a castration ban in Germany. Such a situation was turbulent in solving the issue because the heterogeneous EU was unlikely to agree upon on a single alternative. With the EU now taking a market-based orientation, however, solving the issue now seems more likely. More attention is needed to understand market opportunities and chain integration in this area.
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Notes
“On-line” refers to the slaughter line. Briefly, carcasses go through a sensory evaluation by an expert.
The official notification from Germany in 1993 created tensions between the Danish and German governments. The Danish government asked the European Commission to take Germany to the Court of Justice in Luxembourg due to an infringement of EU law. In 1998, the European Court of Justice ruled that Germany had infringed on the Fresh Meat Directive as far as trade in meat from male pigs was concerned. Based on this conclusion, the Danish pork industry decided to start a civil court case in Germany claiming compensation from the Germany government for profit lost.
Latest update: the end of 2021.
Approximately 80–85% of piglets in Spain and Portugal are raised as entire males. The two countries, together with Ireland and United Kingdom (was part of the EU), have a tradition of producing entire males at a low weight or slaughtering them before reaching sexual maturity. In 2000, the UK introduced Red Tractor Assurance standards, a requirement of which is no castration. The Assurance scheme –– covering more than 90% of UK pig production –– emphasizes its reputation of a high level of animal welfare. Castration in these countries is generally unnecessary, because boar taint does not appear before puberty. However, the carcasses of younger pigs are less competitive on the market and not suitable for some special meat products. Their practice has not gained much attention from producers with economic motives.
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Acknowledgements
This study is conducted as part of the SuSI-project (Sustainability in pork production with immunocastration), funded by Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) as a part of the ERA-NET Confund SusAn (grantnr 696231) then supported by the Nanjing Agricultural University Yucai Program (grantnr SKYC2021001).
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The study was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) as part of the ERA-Net Cofund SusAn (grantnr 696231) through a virtual common pot model with EU top-up. This work was carried out by the Marketing and Consumer Behavior (MCB) group of Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Both authors, Dr. Li Lin-Schilstra and Dr. Paul Ingenbleek, declare that they have no conflicts of interest. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants involved in the study. Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in the paper.
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Appendix Background information of interviewees
Appendix Background information of interviewees
Name | Country | Working experience with boar taint issue | Background | Year of the interview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Ulrike Weiler | Germany | 35 years | Research institute | 2018 |
Yves Beunnens | Belgium | 10 years | Industry | 2018 |
Niels Juul | Denmark | Confidential | Confidential | 2018 |
Michel Bonneau | France | 46 years | Research institute | 2018 |
Marijke Aluwé | Belgium | 13 years | Research institute | 2018 |
Gé Backus | Netherlands | 13 years | Institute and industry | 2018; 2022 |
Jakub Babol | Sweden | 27 years | Research institute | 2018 |
João Almeida | Portugal | Unknown | Research institute | 2018 |
Kai-Uwe Sprenger | Belgium | Unknown | European Commission | 2019 |
Anonymous | France | 13 years | NGO | 2019 |
Deborah Temple | Spain | 12 years | Research institute | 2022 |
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Lin-Schilstra, L., Ingenbleek, P.T. A complex ball game: piglet castration as a dynamic and complex social issue in the EU. J Agric Environ Ethics 35, 11 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-022-09886-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-022-09886-3