Pig Castration: Strategies, Animal Welfare and Pork Quality
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Pigs".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 May 2026 | Viewed by 2785
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food quality and food safety; sanitary inspection; meat quality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: carcass composition; meat quality; image and spectroscopic methods for carcass evaluation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: breeding management; genetic improvement; native farm breeds
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In 2020, around 81 million piglets were surgically castrated in the EU, about 31.5% of all pigs slaughtered that year. This is usually done without anesthesia up to 7 days old, raising ethical concerns about pain and animal welfare. The main reason is to prevent boar taint, an unpleasant odor affecting consumer preference, and to reduce aggressive behavior in non-castrated males.
Several options have been studied, but three main alternatives are being considered: 1. Surgical castration with anesthesia, which reduces suffering but adds cost and complexity; 2. Raising non-castrated males, avoiding castration but requiring boar taint detection at slaughterhouses; 3. Immunocastration, a vaccine against boar taint, has concerns about effectiveness and consumer acceptance.
The welfare of production animals is a strong concern for consumers and a major issue in pig industrial production systems. Even though enrichment materials can be given to pigs even in enclosed spaces to encourage natural behaviors and improve animal welfare without altering the housing structure, alternative methods offering pigs environments where they can express their natural behaviors are becoming more popular.
Further research is necessary to balance animal welfare and meat quality, avoiding compromises to animal welfare and the economic losses associated with meat that has undesirable organoleptic characteristics for consumers.
Dr. Alexandra Esteves
Dr. Severiano R. Silva
Prof. Dr. Rita Payan-Carreira
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- pig castration
- castration strategies
- pork quality
- swine management
- livestock welfare
- swine industry
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
