Influence of housing and season on pubertal development, boar taint compounds and skin lesions of male pigs

Prunier, Armelle; Brilloüet, A.; Merlot, Elodie; Meunier-Salaün, Marie-Christine; Tallet, Céline

doi:10.1017/s1751731113001596

Cited by 31 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Stress may affect colonic function or SKA-degrading enzymes. Such short-term effects before slaughter have only recently been described and further research is needed in this area (Bailey et al, 2011;Maksymchuk and Chashchyn, 2012;Wesoly et al, 2015), especially as others have not found this link with skin lesions (Bekaert et al, 2012a;Prunier et al, 2013;Parois et al, 2015). Skin lesion score was no longer a significant factor in our multivariate model.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…Mörlein et al (2012) suggested that entire male pigs that experienced longer transport duration had higher AND, SKA and IND concentrations which was supported by the findings of Wesoly et al (2015). Skin lesions on the carcass (as a measure of aggressive behaviour during transport) have also been positively linked to SKA and IND , but another study found no link (Parois et al, 2015), whereas no significant correlation between skin lesions, measured in the home pen, and boar taint compounds was found in yet another study (Prunier et al, 2013). Season may influence boar taint (Claus et al, 1983;Andersson et al, 1998;Prunier et al, 2013) even though differences between seasons are not always seen (Walstra et al, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Skin lesions on the carcass (as a measure of aggressive behaviour during transport) have also been positively linked to SKA and IND , but another study found no link (Parois et al, 2015), whereas no significant correlation between skin lesions, measured in the home pen, and boar taint compounds was found in yet another study (Prunier et al, 2013). Season may influence boar taint (Claus et al, 1983;Andersson et al, 1998;Prunier et al, 2013) even though differences between seasons are not always seen (Walstra et al, 1999). When such a seasonal effect was seen, higher levels of AND were observed in fall, which was attributed to decreasing day length (Claus et al, 1983;Andersson et al, 1998;Prunier et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Season may influence boar taint (Claus et al, 1983;Andersson et al, 1998;Prunier et al, 2013) even though differences between seasons are not always seen (Walstra et al, 1999). When such a seasonal effect was seen, higher levels of AND were observed in fall, which was attributed to decreasing day length (Claus et al, 1983;Andersson et al, 1998;Prunier et al, 2013). Higher levels of SKA have been found in summer and this has been related to higher temperature and soiling (Hansen et al, 1994;Walstra et al, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Olfactory evaluation of boar taint: effect of factors measured at slaughter and link with boar taint compounds

Heyrman

Millet²,

Tuyttens³

et al. 2017

Animal

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There is a commitment by the European pig sector to ban surgical castration of male piglets in the European Union in 2018. One alternative to castration is to raise entire male pigs, with an increased risk of boar taint. A field study was performed to: (1) evaluate interand intra-farm variation in boar taint prevalence, (2) investigate factors measured at slaughter influencing boar taint and (3) evaluate the relationship between sensorial scoring by a trained panel and the concentration of boar taint components. From 34 farms, neck fat samples were collected from all entire male pigs in at least two slaughter batches per farm (78 batches; 9167 animals). In addition to olfactory boar taint analysis, data were also collected on fresh skin lesions (score 0 to 3) at the slaughter line, slaughter weight, lean meat percentage, duration of transport, time spent in lairage, total delivery duration, day length, shortening of days and outdoor mean temperature. Using the hot iron method, neck fat samples were scored (eight-point scale) for boar taint. Average boar taint prevalence (score ≥3) was 5.6 ± 2.5% and the mean difference between the maximum and minimum prevalence per farm was 4.3 ± 3.2%. Androstenone (AND), skatole (SKA) and indole concentrations were measured for a subset ( n = 254) of the samples. According to binomial univariate mixed models, entire male pigs with a higher skin lesion score had higher odds of having boar taint ( P = 0.031), as did fatter entire male pigs ( P < 0.001). In the binomial multivariate mixed model lean meat percentage ( P < 0.001) and outdoor mean temperature ( P = 0.005) remained as only significant factors. Based on our results, we can conclude that these statistically significant at least partially influence the prevalence of boar taint. According to the binomial univariate mixed models SKA concentration in liquid fat seems a better predictor for boar taint than AND. There were no significant synergetic effects between boar taint compounds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Olfactory evaluation of boar taint: effect of factors measured at slaughter and link with boar taint compounds

Heyrman

Millet²,

Tuyttens³

et al. 2017

Animal

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“…Prunier et al (2013) found fewer skin lesions in the spring than in autumn and attributed this to earlier puberty in the autumn. A seasonal effect was found on mounting level, with more mounting during the winter periods as compared with summer periods.…”

mentioning

confidence: 92%

Influence of social mixing and group size on skin lesions and mounting in organic entire male pigs

Thomsen

Edwards

Rousing

et al. 2016

Animal

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Alternatives to surgical castration are needed, due to stress and pain caused by castration of male pigs. One alternative is production of entire male pigs. However, changed behaviour of entire males compared with castrated males might adversely affect the welfare of entire males and changes in management procedures and production system might be needed. Elements from the organic pig production system might be beneficial in this aspect. The aim of this article is to investigate the effect of grouping strategy including social mixing and group size on levels of mounting behaviour and skin lesions, hypothesising that procedures that disrupt the social stability (e.g. regrouping) will have a larger negative effect in small groups compared with large groups. Approximately 1600 organic entire male pigs of the breed (Landrace × Yorkshire) × Duroc were reared in parallel in five organic herds, distributed across four batches in a 2 × 2 factorial design in order to test the influence of social mixing (presence or absence of social mixing at relocation) and group size (15 and 30 animals). Animals were able to socialise with piglets from other litters during the lactation period, and were all mixed across litters at weaning. A second mixing occurred at insertion to fattening pens for pigs being regrouped. Counting of skin lesions (1348 or 1124 pigs) and registration of mounting behaviour (1434 or 1258 pigs) were done on two occasions during the experimental period. No interactive effects were found between social mixing and group size on either skin lesions or mounting frequency. Herd differences were found for both mounting frequency and number of skin lesions. No association between skin lesions and mounting were revealed. Social mixing and group size were shown as interacting effects with herds on mounting frequency ( P < 0.0001), but with no consistent pattern across all herds. In addition, no effect of social mixing was found on mean number of skin lesions, but more lesions were observed in large groups ( P < 0.036). This could indicate that keeping entire male pigs in groups of 30 animals as compared with smaller groups of 15 may marginally decrease the welfare of these animals.

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Simultaneous quantification of the boar-taint compounds skatole and androstenone by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and multivariate data analysis

et al. 2015

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This study investigates the feasibility of using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for the quantification of absolute levels of the boar-taint compounds skatole and androstenone in porcine fat. By investigation of different types of nanoparticles, pH and aggregating agents, an optimized environment that promotes SERS of the analytes was developed and tested with different multivariate spectral pre-processing techniques, and this was combined with variable selection on a series of analytical standards. The resulting method exhibited prediction errors (root mean square error of cross validation, RMSECV) of 2.4 × 10(-6) M skatole and 1.2 × 10(-7) M androstenone, with a limit of detection corresponding to approximately 2.1 × 10(-11) M for skatole and approximately 1.8 × 10(-10) for androstenone. The method was subsequently tested on porcine fat extract, leading to prediction errors (RMSECV) of 0.17 μg/g for skatole and 1.5 μg/g for androstenone. It is clear that this optimized SERS method, when combined with multivariate analysis, shows great potential for optimization into an on-line application, which will be the first of its kind, and opens up possibilities for simultaneous detection of other meat-quality metabolites or pathogen markers. Graphical abstract Artistic rendering of a laser-illuminated gold colloid sphere with skatole and androstenone adsorbed on the surface.

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Influence of housing and season on pubertal development, boar taint compounds and skin lesions of male pigs

Cited by 31 publications

References 35 publications

Olfactory evaluation of boar taint: effect of factors measured at slaughter and link with boar taint compounds

Olfactory evaluation of boar taint: effect of factors measured at slaughter and link with boar taint compounds

Influence of social mixing and group size on skin lesions and mounting in organic entire male pigs

Simultaneous quantification of the boar-taint compounds skatole and androstenone by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and multivariate data analysis

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