Energy metabolism, growth performance, body composition, meat quality and boar taint compounds in immunocastrated pigs ; Métabolisme énergétique, performances de croissance, composition corporelle, qualité de viande et les composes de l’odeur de verrat chez les porc immunocastres

Male pigs are usually surgically castrated just after birth in most countries to avoid sexual odors in the meat. Although widely used, surgical castration as practiced today (without anaesthesia and analgesia) is painful for piglets and is criticized by the public (McGlone et al. 1993, Prunier et al. 2006). Furthermore, it may be considered unnecessary in contemporary pig farming for fresh meat consumption. In this case, rearing whole males (WM) would be much more effective (Bonneau 1998, Trefan et al. 2013). Alternatively, vaccination against gonadotrophic hormone (GnRH, called immunocastration) has been proposed; it uses the pig's natural immune system to form specific antibodies that bind and neutralize GnRH. The immunocastration procedure is based on two vaccinations, which interrupts the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis with repercussions on testicular size (reduced) and inhibition of sex steroid synthesis. Physiologically, immunocastration becomes effective during the week following the second vaccination (V2; Claus et al. 2007). Therefore (in case of late revaccination i.e. in the month before slaughter) the growth characteristics of immunocastrated pigs (IC) are similar to those of ME (Škrlep et al. 2010a, Millet et al. 2011, Dunshea et al. 2013) and IC pigs show better performance than surgically castrated pigs (SC; growth rate, feed efficiency and lean meat rate; Millet et al. 2011). However, results are not always consistent and the effects of immunocastration on metabolism, nutritional requirements, and growth potential have not yet been quantified.Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ; Les porcs mâles sont généralement castrés chirurgicalement juste après la naissance dans la plupart de pays afin d’éviter les odeurs sexuelles dans la viande. Bien que largement utilisée, la castration chirurgicale telle que pratiquée aujourd’hui (sans anasthésie et analgesie) est douloureuse pour les porcelets et elle est critiquée par le public (McGlone et al. 1993, Prunier et al. 2006). De ...