Routine pig husbandry procedures including castration, teeth clipping and dehorning cause significant acute pain that is frequently performed without analgesia despite evidence that effective pain relief is available and affordable.
Pain management in routine pig husbandry procedures represents one of the most tractable welfare improvements available to the pork industry. The procedures causing the most pain — surgical castration and teeth clipping — are performed on hundreds of millions of piglets annually, typically without any analgesia. Evidence clearly demonstrates that this causes significant acute pain measurable through behavioral, physiological and neurological indicators. Evidence equally clearly demonstrates that effective analgesic protocols are commercially feasible — the EU pig industry has been given repeated deadlines to eliminate surgical castration without analgesia, most recently targeting 2021, with mixed compliance. Immunocastration and entire male production offer surgical castration alternatives that eliminate the welfare problem entirely when implemented with appropriate management.