14 July 2011

The Eurogroup for Animals has welcomed news that during the last meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH), EU Member States unanimously voted in favour of the financing decision on alternatives to surgical castration of pigs.

In practice, it means that three actions approved in the "Brussels Declaration" will be launched before the end of this year. These are:

• Research, with the Joint Research Centre Institute to develop reference methods for the measurement of the compounds responsible for boar taint.

• Study on consumers’ acceptance of products from male pigs (EU and third countries).
• Creation of a dedicated website providing information and training for actors of the whole pork chain on actions of the European partnership on pig castration.

Further initiatives will be launched in 2012, including detection of boar taint in slaughter lines, reduction of boar taint compounds by breeding techniques, feeding techniques and management and an economic analysis.

The group said that the vote is an essential step to effectively launching the European partnership on alternatives to surgical castration of piglets, included in the "Brussels declaration".