Boars to the market - solutions for Production, Pork quality & Markers for boar taint

The project "Boars to the market - solutions for Production, Pork quality & Markers for boar taint" addressed challenges related to pig production and castration. A rapid introduction of alternatives to surgical castration is sought. For the industry, it is a prerequisite that the methods and rate ensures meat quality, maintains the consumption of pork meat, and that the economy is sustained or improved throughout the value chain. If the boar taint problem can be reduced and controlled, production of entire males will be feasible, which again will contribute to improved animal welfare and reduced costs in pork production. The overall idea in the project has thus been to initiate economically sustainable alternatives to surgical castration of male pigs. In the short term, immunological castration might an option, but in a longer term, production of entire males with sufficiently low levels of boar taint might be a better solution. Regardless of the strategy chosen, it will be important to have a method for sorting boars at the slaughter line. The projects activities have focused on 3 main areas: development a new method for measuring boar taint on the slaughter line, characterization of quality, yield and consumer acceptance of vaccinated pigs, and reduction of boar taint through breeding. During the project period, we have collected information from 252 pigs (sows, boars, castrates and vaccinated pigs) from three different pig producers. After slaughter, all pigs were cut down at the Animalia pilot plant, where yield and technological meat quality parameters were recorded. Samples from the meat cutting were then analyzed by NMBU for skatol and androstenone, the two substances responsible for boar taint. These analyzes have formed the basis for selection of samples for both sensory- and method testing. The deboning and cutting trials have shown that when it comes to technological meat quality and yield, vaccinated pigs are more similar to entire males for some traits, while resembling regular finisher pigs for other traits. Androstenon-analyses of pigs in the project have also shown that the vaccine does not always work as it should; 25% of the vaccinated pigs in the project had androstenone-values above the approved limit of 1PPM. The reason for the elevated levels of androstenone in vaccinated pigs is still uncertain. The consumer role has been of importance in the project. In collaboration with Nortura and MatPrat this has been mapped using a consumer questionnaire, sensory testing, and food preparation trials. The consumer survey addressed consumer attitudes to different castration methods, and showed that the method consumers considered most acceptable was surgical castration with anesthesia. Vaccination against boar taint was also accepted, but not equally accepted as the current practice of surgical castration with anesthesia. Animal welfare considerations were given the greatest emphasis by the consumers when assessing the different castration methods. The project has also carried out sensory tests and food preparation trials on different cuts from the sows, boars, castrates and vaccinated pigs delivered to the project. The results show that there is actually greater variation between individuals than between the different groups, and thus, meat from vaccinated pigs does not seem to differ significantly from meat from regular finisher pigs. The project has also worked on developing a technique for measuring the boar taint compounds using microwave spectroscopy. The purpose of developing this technique was to provide abattoirs with a rapid and low-cost at-line approach to sorting tainted carcasses. Although the project has demonstrated that both androstenone and skatol are detectable via the method, the results unfortunately show that the microwave sensor is not sensitive enough to detect these compounds at the at levels that are relevant to the pork industry. To try to reduce boar taint via breeding, both genotypes and boar taint measurements have been collected during the project period. Fertility-related phenotypes on the same animals have been collected via Norsvins routine phenotyping and have been available for use by the project. Via another project, we have also had access to human nose score (HNS) data on many of the same animals. The results show that the areas of the inheritance material that explain variation for skatol also explain HNS in both breeds. Based on the phenotypes collected in this project, as well as genotypes from both this project and routine collection, boar taint has now been implemented in the breeding objective for the Norwegian breeds Landrace and Duroc. Results from the BoarPPM-project will be important for the pork industry if a castration ban comes into effect in the future. Furthermore, these results may help the industry choose an appropriate method to ensure that meat products will not contain boar taint.

Prosjektet har gitt økt forståelse rundt svineproduksjon og kastrering av hanngriser, spesielt vaksinering mot rånelukt. Både utbytte, kjøttkvalitet, spisekvalitet og forbrukerholdninger til griser som har blitt vaksinert mot rånelukt har blitt kartlagt, og denne informasjonen vil være nyttig og viktig for svineindustrien hvis vaksinering ønskes som kastreringsmetode. Videre har prosjektets arbeid resultert i at vi nå har fått implementert rånelukt i avlsmålet til de norske rasene landsvin og duroc, som betyr at vi gjennom avl vil redusere rånelukten i de norske rasene på lang sikt. Prosjektet har vært ambisiøst i sitt ønske om å finne en løsning for å måle rånelukt direkte på slaktelinja. Dette har vi dessverre ikke klart å oppfylle, men prosjektet har tilegnet seg mye ny kunnskap som er meget nyttig for fremtidig arbeid på dette feltet. Kollektivt vil informasjonen samlet i løpet av dette prosjektet vil være av stor nytteverdi for svineindustrien ved et eventuelt kastreringsforbud.

The project "Boars to the market - solutions for Production, Pork quality & Markers for boar taint" will address challenges related to pig production and castration. There is a considerable political pressure on the Norwegian pig production for a faster introduction of alternatives to surgical castration. The overall idea is to initiate economically sustainable alternatives to surgical castration of male pigs. In the short term, immunological castration is an option, but in a longer term, production of intact male pigs with sufficiently low levels of boar taint might be a better solution. Regardless of the strategy chosen, it will be important to have a method for sorting boars at the slaughter line. To meet these challenges the following objectives are defined: develop a new method for measuring boar taint, characterise quality of immunologically castrated pig carcasses and implement genomic breeding values for low boar taint. For the industry, it is a prerequisite that the methods and rate ensures meat quality, maintains the consumption of pork meat, and that the economy is sustained or improved throughout the value chain. If the boar taint problem can be reduced and controlled, production of entire males will be feasible, which again will contribute to improved animal welfare and reduced costs in pork production.