The Effect of Immunocastration on Some Meat Quality Characteristics

Surgical castration of male pigs has become increasingly less accepted at present due to the fact that it is a direct animal welfare concern. UE welfare conditions demand that this method be dropped starting 2018 in order to eliminate the stress and associated pain it induces. Immunocastration is one of the alternatives to surgical castration that ensures male pig welfare and eliminates the boar smell of the meat. The objective of this research has been to identify the immunocastration effects on meat quality, compared with the meat from surgically castrated pigs. The animals assessed during research were fattening PIC pigs, grouped into two lots: surgically castrated pigs (SC) and immunocastrated pigs (IC). Pig immunization was achieved by means of Improvac TM . The results have shown that immunocastrated pigs recorded a 60.2% carcass meat compared to the 59.69% carcass meat achieved in surgically castrated pigs, thus displaying statistically insignificant differences (p≥0.05). Fat layer thickness was significantly lower in immunocastrated pigs compared to the marker lot (p≤0.05). Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae lung lesions recorded were lower in immunocastrated pigs compared to the surgically castrated animals (p≥0.05). Despite the fact that differences have been statistically insignificant, we are able to confirm that immunocastrated pigs display a lower incidence of respiratory disease compared to surgically castrated pigs.  In this study there were not significant differences in meat quality between surgically castrated pigs and immunocastrated pigs.