Surgical castration of male piglets to prevent boar taint in pork remains widespread but causes significant pain, prompting the search for humane alternatives.
Surgical castration without pain relief causes intense acute suffering. Research documents characteristic pain behaviours including high-pitched vocalisation, struggling, and reduced activity following the procedure. Even with local anaesthesia or general anaesthesia, post-operative pain management is essential but often inadequate. The European Pig Charter agreement to end non-anaesthetised castration by 2018 was not achieved. Alternatives including entire male rearing with consumer education, genetic selection to reduce boar taint, and immunocastration offer routes to eliminate this welfare problem without compromising production. Immunocastration is already adopted in some markets and demonstrates that the welfare burden of surgical castration is not inevitable.