Lin-Schilstra Li, Ingenbleek Paul T M
College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group, Wageningen University & Research, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Jun 24;12(13):1625. doi: 10.3390/ani12131625.
Painful castration of male piglets to avoid boar taint can potentially be replaced by three more ethical alternatives: entire male production in combination with a detection method, immunocastration (an active vaccination against the gonadotrophin-releasing factor, GnRF), and castration with pain relief (anesthesia and/or analgesia). With the aim of abandoning piglet castration and facilitating internal trade, the European Union (EU) was initially in favor of a single alternative. Immunocastration was proposed as a potential solution, but it has not yet been sufficiently assessed regarding its market potential. To address this point, this paper uses scenario analysis to examine whether and under what conditions immunocastration could be the general solution sought by the EU. The study constructs two extreme scenarios: one in which all uncertain elements negatively influence the growth of immunocastration; another in which all uncertain elements have positive influences. These scenarios provide insights into the variance in possible futures for the implementation of immunocastration. The results show that it is unlikely that immunocastration will become a single solution for all producers in the EU, because it is not the optimal solution for all types of EU pork production systems (i.e., cost-efficiency oriented, quality oriented, animal-friendly oriented, import dependent). Rather than debating and looking for evidence about which single method is the best for the entire EU, EU authorities are advised to allow the co-existence of all alternatives and to develop protocols for applying them in the pork industry.
为避免公猪异味而对雄性仔猪进行痛苦的阉割，可能会被另外三种更符合伦理的方法所取代：全雄生产结合检测方法、免疫去势（针对促性腺激素释放因子GnRF的主动疫苗接种）以及无痛阉割（麻醉和/或镇痛）。为了摒弃仔猪阉割并促进内部贸易，欧盟最初倾向于单一的替代方法。免疫去势被提议作为一种潜在的解决方案，但尚未对其市场潜力进行充分评估。为解决这一问题，本文采用情景分析来研究免疫去势是否以及在何种条件下可能成为欧盟所寻求的通用解决方案。该研究构建了两种极端情景：一种情景是所有不确定因素都对免疫去势的发展产生负面影响；另一种情景是所有不确定因素都产生正面影响。这些情景有助于深入了解免疫去势实施的可能未来的变化情况。结果表明，免疫去势不太可能成为欧盟所有生产者的单一解决方案，因为它并非适用于所有类型的欧盟猪肉生产系统（即以成本效益为导向、以质量为导向、以动物友好为导向、依赖进口）的最优解决方案。建议欧盟当局不要争论并寻找哪种单一方法对整个欧盟最为合适的证据，而是允许所有替代方法并存，并制定在猪肉行业应用这些方法的方案。
