About 40% of Dutch Male Pigs are No Longer Castrated

December 7, 2011 — 

Approximately 40% of all male piglets born in the Netherlands are not castrated anymore. This figure was revealed by Dr Gé Backus, Wageningen University & Research Centre, at the start of the Boars Heading for 2018 conference. The conference, held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on Nov 30 and Dec 1, brings together 150 international experts, mainly from Europe, to discuss about the future of boar raising. In the European Union, piglet castration will be banned by 2018.

The Netherlands paved the way for this ban, which was agreed to voluntarily by stakeholders from all 27 countries of the European Union in the end of December 2009. In the Netherlands, a similar development had led to a similar agreement in 2007.

As a result, the vast majority of retail chains in the Netherlands do not sell pork from barrows anymore – those pigs castrated end up in other market segments, predominantly exports.

Source and additional information: PigProgress.net, December 1, 2011