Centre for Agro-food Economy and Development (CREDA-UPC-IRTA), Casteldefells, Barcelona, Spain.
Meat Sci. 2013 Oct;95(2):242-9. doi: 10.1016/j.meatsci.2013.05.011. Epub 2013 May 16.
Our research explored the relative importance of pig castration amongst other aspects of animal welfare, and the potential impact of information and sensory experiences on European Union (EU) consumers' preferences. The EU is considering a future ban on surgical pig castration by 2018 which may affect markets and consumers' preferences. We carried out an empirical study using consumer-level data obtained from questionnaires completed in a controlled environment by a total of 825 consumers. The experiment was carried out in six EU countries (Spain, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France, Italy and Germany) which account for 66.0% of the EU-27's and 76.3% of the EU-15's meat production. Results show that consumers do not perceive pig castration to be a relevant aspect of animal welfare nor its relationship with meat quality. Consumers with healthy life styles, concerned about animal welfare and who have had a negative sensory experience with boar meat are willing to accept paying more to avoid boar taint.
我们的研究探讨了猪去势与动物福利其他方面的相对重要性，以及信息和感官体验对欧盟（EU）消费者偏好的潜在影响。欧盟正在考虑在 2018 年之前禁止对猪进行手术去势，这可能会影响市场和消费者的偏好。我们使用从总共 825 名消费者在受控环境中完成的调查问卷中获得的消费者层面的数据进行了一项实证研究。该实验在六个欧盟国家（西班牙、英国、荷兰、法国、意大利和德国）进行，这些国家占欧盟 27 国和欧盟 15 国肉类产量的 66.0%和 76.3%。结果表明，消费者认为猪去势不是动物福利的一个相关方面，也不认为它与肉的质量有关。生活方式健康、关注动物福利、对公猪肉有负面感官体验的消费者愿意支付更多的费用来避免公猪异味。
