Exploratory survey on european consumer and stakeholder attitudes towards alternatives for surgical castration of piglets

Surgical castration of piglets without pain relief is still common practice in many countries. Possible alternatives for surgical castration are application of pain relief or anaesthesia or production of boars (entire males) and immunocastrates. Each of these alternatives faces advantages and disadvantages which may result in different citizen attitudes and consumers acceptability. Understanding which practice is acceptable to whom and why may further stimulate implementation. Consumer (n = 3251) and stakeholder (n = 1027) attitudes towards surgical castration without pain relief, surgical castration with anaesthesia, immunocastration, and production of boars were surveyed from April to June 2020 via an online questionnaire in 16 countries (>175 respondents per country). Surgical castration without pain relief was separated from each of the alternatives due to animal welfare and showed the lowest acceptability (32%). Within the alternatives, a further partitioning between the alternatives was based on perceived quality and food safety, with an acceptance of 85% for applying anaesthesia, 71% for immunocastration, and 49% for boar production. Differences depending on professional involvement and familiarity with agriculture could be observed, mainly for the acceptance of surgical castration without anaesthesia, immunocastration, and boars. Castration with anaesthesia was highly accepted by all types of respondents

Intramuskulärer Fettgehalt von Schweinen

The eating quality of porcine meat is supposed to increase with raising intramuscular fat content (IMF). The aim of this study was to investigate the use of acoustic parameters obtained by spectral analysis of ultrasound echo signals to non-destructively predict intramuscular fat content of porcine longissimus muscle. Ultrasound data acquisition was performed at slaughter with a clinical B-mode device at 115 warm carcasses. Acoustic parameters quantifying attenuation, backscattering and cepstral structure were calculated. off-line from the recorded primary ultrasound echo signals. The IMF content could be predicted with mean standard error of prediction of 0.36% IMF, and the ultrasound parameters were able to correctly classify nearly 80% of the carcasses into HIGH and LOW level fat class, respectively

Intramuskulärer Fettgehalt von Schweinen

The eating quality of porcine meat is supposed to increase with raising intramuscular fat content (IMF). The aim of this study was to investigate the use of acoustic parameters obtained by spectral analysis of ultrasound echo signals to non-destructively predict intramuscular fat content of porcine longissimus muscle. Ultrasound data acquisition was performed at slaughter with a clinical B-mode device at 115 warm carcasses. Acoustic parameters quantifying attenuation, backscattering and cepstral structure were calculated. off-line from the recorded primary ultrasound echo signals. The IMF content could be predicted with mean standard error of prediction of 0.36% IMF, and the ultrasound parameters were able to correctly classify nearly 80% of the carcasses into HIGH and LOW level fat class, respectively