Poland

ratory for Research on Heavy Metals Accumulation in the Food Chain and Modeling, Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and University of Agronomic Sciences, 011464 Bucharest, Romania; liliana_tudoreanu223@hotmail.co.uk 18 Norsvin SA, Storhamargata 44, 2317 Hamar, Norway; maren.van.son@norsvin.no 19 Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7015, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; Galia.zamaratskaia@slu.se 20 Department of Food Science and Technology, Veterinary Faculty, University of Murcia, 30071 Espinardo Murcia, Spain; macarena.egea@um.es * Correspondence: marijke.aluwe@ilvo.vlaanderen.be Animals 2020, 10, 1758; doi:10.3390/ani10101758 www.mdpi.com/journal/animals Animals 2020, 10, 1758 2 of 25 Received: 14 August 2020; Accepted: 16 September 2020; Published: 28 September 2020 Simple Summary: In many countries, surgical castration of piglets without pain relief or anaesthesia is still common practice. Castration is performed to minimise the incidence of boar taint, a bad taste (urine/fecal like), typically present in the meat of 5 to 10% of uncastrated male pigs. It also helps to avoid aggressive and sexual behaviour. For animal welfare reasons, alternatives are being considered, and in some countries, an alternative is already practiced. One option is to perform surgical castration with anaesthesia and relieve pain. A second option is to produce male pigs without castration, which requires detection of tainted carcasses in the slaughter house. A third option is to apply immunocastration: by a two-fold injection of a vaccine, the testes function is inhibited, which reduces boar-like behaviour and avoids boar taint. In this study, we evaluated the acceptability of each of these methods in 16 countries in Europe. Of the 4

…Nowoursynowska 159c, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland; eliza_kostyra@sggw.edu.pl (E.K.); sylwia_zakowska_biemans@sggw.edu.pl (S.Ż.-B.) 10 Department of Behavioral Physiology of Livestock, Institute of Animal…

…Przechlewo, Poland; piotr.cybulski@goodvalley.com 3 Department of Technique and Food Product Development, Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 159c Street, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland; iwona…

…Przechlewo, Poland; piotr.cybulski@goodvalley.com 3 Department of Technique and Food Product Development, Institute of Human Nutrition Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 159c Street, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland; iwona…

…Nutrition, Institute of Animal Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Ciszewskiego 8, 02-786 Warsaw, Poland ♦ Corresponding author: anna_zalewska1@sggw.edu.pl Abstract The European Declaration on Alternatives to Surgical Castration…

…Nutrition, Institute of Animal Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Ciszewskiego 8, 02-786 Warsaw, Poland ♦ Corresponding author: anna_zalewska1@sggw.edu.pl Abstract The European Declaration on Alternatives to Surgical Castration…

…Sciences in Lublin, POLAND 0.84), but inter-experience reliability was lower (0.42). Little to no experience observers had Received: May 17, 2024 poor agreement with other observers, with a bias…

…Sciences in Lublin, POLAND 0.84), but inter-experience reliability was lower (0.42). Little to no experience observers had Received: May 17, 2024 poor agreement with other observers, with a bias…