Surgical castration of male pigs is widely practiced to prevent boar taint but causes pain. Immunocastration offers a welfare-improving alternative increasingly adopted in Europe.
Surgical pig castration causes acute pain, stress, and wound infection risk. Even with anaesthesia, the procedure causes significant welfare compromise. Immunocastration eliminates the surgical procedure entirely, preventing boar taint through two vaccine doses given 4-5 weeks before slaughter. The animal retains entire male physiology through most of its life and only loses reproductive capacity near slaughter. Rearing entire males to slaughter without castration is also practiced in some systems with careful management and rapid slaughter scheduling.