Removing Boar Taint Roulette May Mean Higher Sales

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Latest Pig Industry News

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

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Removing Boar Taint Roulette May Mean Higher Sales

UK - In a survey of attendees at a recent Pig Veterinary Society meeting, 70 per cent claimed they could detect boar taint and 68 per cent agreed with the statement "Boar taint has a negative impact on sales of pork and bacon." Over 50 per cent agreed that "Incidence of boar taint places British product at a disadvantage compared to imported product."

Have British consumers already voted with their feet? wonders vet David Burch. "Statistically, we have the lowest consumption of pork in Europe."

He accepts we won’t go back to castration. "The whole welfare view of castrating piglets in Europe is rapidly changing with the requirement to anaesthetise or offer pain relief as part of the process being adopted.

"But we now have the opportunity in the United Kingdom to solve our boar-taint problems yet maintain most of the advantages of non-castration, by using the new boar-taint vaccine.

"I am not underestimating the labour and cost required to give boars two injections but surely the benefits will make it worthwhile and allow us to build a stronger, sustainable British pig industry for the future."

ThePigSite News Desk