Nicolò Columbano

…A Feasibility Study Stella Maria Teresa Romeo, Sarah Morrone , Toufic Akl, Antonio Scanu and Nicolò Columbano * Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy * Correspondence: ncolumbano@uniss.it Simple Summary…

…A Feasibility Study Stella Maria Teresa Romeo, Sarah Morrone , Toufic Akl, Antonio Scanu and Nicolò Columbano * Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy * Correspondence: ncolumbano@uniss.it Simple Summary…

animals Article Exploratory Survey on European Consumer and Stakeholder Attitudes towards Alternatives for Surgical Castration of Piglets Marijke Aluwé 1, *, Evert Heyrman 1 , João M. Almeida 2 , Jakub Babol 3 , Gianni Battacone 4 , Jaroslav Čítek 5 , Maria Font i Furnols 6 , Andriy Getya 7 , Danijel Karolyi 8 , Eliza Kostyra 9 , Kevin Kress 10 , Goran Kušec 11 , Daniel Mörlein 12 , Anastasia Semenova 13 , Martin Škrlep 14 , Todor Stoyanchev 15 , Igor Tomašević 16 , Liliana Tudoreanu 17 , Maren Van Son 18 , Sylwia Żakowska-Biemans 9 , Galia Zamaratskaia 19 , Alice Van den Broeke 1 and Macarena Egea 20 1 Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Animal Sciences Unit, 9090 Melle, Belgium; evert.heyrman@ilvo.vlaanderen.be (E.H.); alice.vandenbroeke@ilvo.vlaanderen.be (A.V.d.B.) 2 Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária (INIAV), Quinta da Fonte Boa, 2005-048 Vale de Santarém, Portugal; joaoalmeida@iniav.pt 3 Department of Biomedical Science and Veterinary Public Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7015, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; jakub.babol@slu.se 4 Department of Agriculture, University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39, 07100 Sassari, Italy; battacon@uniss.it 5 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU), Kamycka 129, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic; citek@af.czu.cz 6 Institute for Food and Agriculture Research and Technology (IRTA), Product Quality Program, Finca Camps i Armet, 17121 Monells, Girona, Spain; maria.font@irta.cat 7 Animal Breeding Department, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (NULES), Henerala Rodimtseva 19, 03041 Kyiv, Ukraine; getya@ukr.net 8 Department of Animal

animals Article Exploratory Survey on European Consumer and Stakeholder Attitudes towards Alternatives for Surgical Castration of Piglets Marijke Aluwé 1, *, Evert Heyrman 1 , João M. Almeida 2 , Jakub Babol 3 , Gianni Battacone 4 , Jaroslav Čítek 5 , Maria Font i Furnols 6 , Andriy Getya 7 , Danijel Karolyi 8 , Eliza Kostyra 9 , Kevin Kress 10 , Goran Kušec 11 , Daniel Mörlein 12 , Anastasia Semenova 13 , Martin Škrlep 14 , Todor Stoyanchev 15 , Igor Tomašević 16 , Liliana Tudoreanu 17 , Maren Van Son 18 , Sylwia Żakowska-Biemans 9 , Galia Zamaratskaia 19 , Alice Van den Broeke 1 and Macarena Egea 20 1 Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Animal Sciences Unit, 9090 Melle, Belgium; evert.heyrman@ilvo.vlaanderen.be (E.H.); alice.vandenbroeke@ilvo.vlaanderen.be (A.V.d.B.) 2 Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária (INIAV), Quinta da Fonte Boa, 2005-048 Vale de Santarém, Portugal; joaoalmeida@iniav.pt 3 Department of Biomedical Science and Veterinary Public Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7015, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; jakub.babol@slu.se 4 Department of Agriculture, University of Sassari, Viale Italia 39, 07100 Sassari, Italy; battacon@uniss.it 5 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU), Kamycka 129, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic; citek@af.czu.cz 6 Institute for Food and Agriculture Research and Technology (IRTA), Product Quality Program, Finca Camps i Armet, 17121 Monells, Girona, Spain; maria.font@irta.cat 7 Animal Breeding Department, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (NULES), Henerala Rodimtseva 19, 03041 Kyiv, Ukraine; getya@ukr.net 8 Department of Animal

ofile in backfat. The analysis of compounds responsible for boar taint confirmed the effectiveness of immunocastration in reducing hormone levels (an- drostenol, androsterone) in meat and backfat. However, variability in indole concentration Animals 2025, 15, 3374 16 of 19 was observed. Analysis using an electronic nose showed the highest indole content in meat and the lowest in fat from immunologically castrated males, indicating that the effect of immunocastration was not uniform in all tissues. The significant differences in the levels of the compounds tested (indole, skatole, androstenol, and androsterone) may reflect the influence of individual variability. The results obtained suggest that despite the effective reduction in sex steroids as a result of immunocastration, in some cases, individually varying levels of compounds responsible for boar taint, especially indole, may persist. Author Contributions: Conceptualisation, A.Z., M.S., A.R., P.C., and M.B.; methodology, A.Z., M.S., P.C., A.P., K.P., and M.B.; validation, A.Z., M.S., and M.B.; formal analysis, J.W.; investigation, A.Z., P.C., I.W.-K., A.P., and K.P.; resources, P.C., A.P., and K.P.; data curation, A.Z. and J.W.; writing— original draft preparation, A.Z.; writing—review and editing, A.Z., M.S., J.W., A.R., I.W.-K., and M.B.; visualisation, A.Z.; supervision, M.S. and M.B.; project administration, A.Z.; funding acquisition, A.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Funding: This research received no external funding. Institutional Review Board Statement: Ethical review and approval were waived for this study. According to Polish law and EU Directive 2010/63/EU, the experiment did not require approval from the local ethics committee, as it was conducted in

ofile in backfat. The analysis of compounds responsible for boar taint confirmed the effectiveness of immunocastration in reducing hormone levels (an- drostenol, androsterone) in meat and backfat. However, variability in indole concentration Animals 2025, 15, 3374 16 of 19 was observed. Analysis using an electronic nose showed the highest indole content in meat and the lowest in fat from immunologically castrated males, indicating that the effect of immunocastration was not uniform in all tissues. The significant differences in the levels of the compounds tested (indole, skatole, androstenol, and androsterone) may reflect the influence of individual variability. The results obtained suggest that despite the effective reduction in sex steroids as a result of immunocastration, in some cases, individually varying levels of compounds responsible for boar taint, especially indole, may persist. Author Contributions: Conceptualisation, A.Z., M.S., A.R., P.C., and M.B.; methodology, A.Z., M.S., P.C., A.P., K.P., and M.B.; validation, A.Z., M.S., and M.B.; formal analysis, J.W.; investigation, A.Z., P.C., I.W.-K., A.P., and K.P.; resources, P.C., A.P., and K.P.; data curation, A.Z. and J.W.; writing— original draft preparation, A.Z.; writing—review and editing, A.Z., M.S., J.W., A.R., I.W.-K., and M.B.; visualisation, A.Z.; supervision, M.S. and M.B.; project administration, A.Z.; funding acquisition, A.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Funding: This research received no external funding. Institutional Review Board Statement: Ethical review and approval were waived for this study. According to Polish law and EU Directive 2010/63/EU, the experiment did not require approval from the local ethics committee, as it was conducted in

d 300g, and an 18 gauge needle, used to stimulate the wound and surrounding skin ITALY respectively, at various pre-determined sites. Neonatal piglets receiving topical anaesthesia Received: June 25, 2017 (Tri-Solfen®) spray into castration wounds had significantly lower wound sensitivity Accepted: October 30, 2017 responses for up to 4h, compared to those castrated following intra-testicular lignocaine injection or those with no treatment. The use of topical anaesthetic is suggested as a practi- Published: November 15, 2017 cal and affordable method of improving piglet welfare during castration. Copyright: © 2017 Lomax et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original Introduction author and source are credited. Castration of male piglets is a routine husbandry procedure commonly performed within the Data Availability Statement: Data are available as first few days of life in commercial piggeries globally. Extensive research to assess the effect of supplementary file S4. castration on the welfare of the piglets indicates that castration causes significant stress, pain Funding: This work was funded by Australian Pork and discomfort that can persist for up to 4 days [1–4]. Limited with topical anaesthetic formulation Castration of piglets is usually performed without anaesthesia or analgesia, presumably supplied by Bayer Animal Health. The funder had because the anaesthetic techniques commonly used for comparable surgeries in human and no role in the design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the veterinary medicine (general anaesthesia or sedation, local anaesthetic

d 300g, and an 18 gauge needle, used to stimulate the wound and surrounding skin ITALY respectively, at various pre-determined sites. Neonatal piglets receiving topical anaesthesia Received: June 25, 2017 (Tri-Solfen®) spray into castration wounds had significantly lower wound sensitivity Accepted: October 30, 2017 responses for up to 4h, compared to those castrated following intra-testicular lignocaine injection or those with no treatment. The use of topical anaesthetic is suggested as a practi- Published: November 15, 2017 cal and affordable method of improving piglet welfare during castration. Copyright: © 2017 Lomax et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original Introduction author and source are credited. Castration of male piglets is a routine husbandry procedure commonly performed within the Data Availability Statement: Data are available as first few days of life in commercial piggeries globally. Extensive research to assess the effect of supplementary file S4. castration on the welfare of the piglets indicates that castration causes significant stress, pain Funding: This work was funded by Australian Pork and discomfort that can persist for up to 4 days [1–4]. Limited with topical anaesthetic formulation Castration of piglets is usually performed without anaesthesia or analgesia, presumably supplied by Bayer Animal Health. The funder had because the anaesthetic techniques commonly used for comparable surgeries in human and no role in the design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the veterinary medicine (general anaesthesia or sedation, local anaesthetic

d 300g, and an 18 gauge needle, used to stimulate the wound and surrounding skin ITALY respectively, at various pre-determined sites. Neonatal piglets receiving topical anaesthesia Received: June 25, 2017 (Tri-Solfen®) spray into castration wounds had significantly lower wound sensitivity Accepted: October 30, 2017 responses for up to 4h, compared to those castrated following intra-testicular lignocaine injection or those with no treatment. The use of topical anaesthetic is suggested as a practi- Published: November 15, 2017 cal and affordable method of improving piglet welfare during castration. Copyright: © 2017 Lomax et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original Introduction author and source are credited. Castration of male piglets is a routine husbandry procedure commonly performed within the Data Availability Statement: Data are available as first few days of life in commercial piggeries globally. Extensive research to assess the effect of supplementary file S4. castration on the welfare of the piglets indicates that castration causes significant stress, pain Funding: This work was funded by Australian Pork and discomfort that can persist for up to 4 days [1–4]. Limited with topical anaesthetic formulation Castration of piglets is usually performed without anaesthesia or analgesia, presumably supplied by Bayer Animal Health. The funder had because the anaesthetic techniques commonly used for comparable surgeries in human and no role in the design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the veterinary medicine (general anaesthesia or sedation, local anaesthetic

gh degree of variability in the literature of test methods employed and outcomes obtained, there is nevertheless a growing body of evidence to suggest that some piglet responses to pain induced by castration, are more consistently reproduced and specific to the pain experienced during castration than others. In this narrative review, we examine the potential indicators of pain in neonatal piglets undergoing castration to determine the optimal methods currently available to most accurately detect pain and assess pain mitigation. Abstract: Analgesic products for piglet castration are critically needed. This requires extensive animal experimentation such as to meet regulatory-required proof of efficacy. At present, there are no validated methods of assessing pain in neonatal piglets. This poses challenges for investigators to optimize trial design and to meet ethical obligations to minimize the number of animals needed. Pain in neonatal piglets may be subtle, transient, and/or variably expressed and, in the absence of validated methods, investigators must rely on using a range of biochemical, physiological and behavioural variables, many of which appear to have very low (or unknown) sensitivity or specificity for documenting pain, or pain-relieving effects. A previous systematic review of this subject was hampered by the high degree of variability in the literature base both in terms of methods used to assess pain and pain mitigation, as well as in outcomes reported. In this setting we provide a narrative review to assist in determining the optimal methods currently available to detect piglet pain during castration and methods to mitigate castration-induced pain. In overview, the optimal outcome variables identified are nociceptive motor and vocal response scores during