New Technology in Castration
European Technology in Veterinary Medicine – On its Way
ImproVac – the
only vaccine to reduce boar tint.
“The way is open for EU swine producers to raise male
pigs intact, with improved feed conversion and carcass quality compared to
castrates, while still reducing boar taint as effectively as castration” says
Jim Allison, Technical Director Swine, Pfizer Animal Health: Europe.
This technology is already approved in over 50 countries.
The development of a vaccine to control boar taint actually began life in
Australia some 20 years ago which the project nearly ended in 1933 when it was
decided that it may not be worth spending more time and money which is about to
disappear forever. However, Dr David Hennessy, Australia’s State Government
Research Facilities, Victorian Institute of Animal Science conduct a small
trial on the vaccine and it was successful and the development programme
continued. Because of his background in pig production, Hennessy had seen the
potential of the Technology as a way of avoiding the losses associated with
castration while keeping the highest standards and still reducing boar tint.
The idea behind the vaccine is to encourage the pig’s
immune system to produce antibodies which inhibit the function of the testicles
and thus reduce the level of boar taint compounds in the meat.
Normally, gonadotrophin releasing factor (GnRF) which is
released by the pig’s brain and starts to stimulate the release of steroids
(terstosterone and androstenone-a major cause of boar tint) from the testicles
as the pigs reaches puberty. Injection of ImproVac will stopped the action of
the GnRF that eventually antagonize the build-up of boar taint compounds that
is frequently found in the meat thereby unnecessary odour or smell of the meat
is minimize or absent.
In 1998, the world’s first vaccine for the reduction of
boar tint in male pigs was finally licensed in Australia and is now making an
impact on a global scale.
On this developed technology, vaccination against boar
tint has not been an overnight sensation, it many years to developed and has
accumulated over ten years of commercial experience in over 10 million pigs.
