Consumer’s attitudes towards surgical castration of pigs in three Western Balkan countries

Tomasevic, Igor and Novakovic, Sasa and Djekić, Ilija and Nakov, Dimitar and Guerrero, Luis and Font-i-Furnols, Maria (2018) Consumer’s attitudes towards surgical castration of pigs in three Western Balkan countries. Advances in Animal Biosciences, 9. s1-s59. ISSN 20404700

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Abstract

Surgical castration of male piglets without anaesthesia is performed routinely by farmers or veterinarians in
Western Balkan countries to eliminate the risk of boar taint in pork meat. The aim of the study was to investigate
consumers’ attitudes towards surgical castration of piglets in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) and Macedonia.
A representative consumer survey was carried out in these three countries in 2017. Over twelve hundred (1,287)
questionnaires were answered by pork eaters. Likert scale data were considered as ordinal values and non-parametric
statistical tests have been used since data were not normally distributed. Mann-Whitney U test has been performed
to compare the statements between genders and age and Kruskal-Wallis H test between countries (P=0.05). Western
Balkan consumers agree (5.2±1.2) that surgical castration produces pain to the animal. They are significantly more
likely to agree in Macedonia that meat from castrated pigs is of better quality (4.8±1.5) than in Serbia (4.6±1.3)
and B&H (4.5±1.1). Macedonians agree the least (3.9±1.3) followed by more ambiguous consumers from Serbia
(4.4±1.1) and B&H (4.5±1.0) that meat from castrated pigs is more expensive. Macedonians are also significantly
more likely to disagree (3.6±1.6) that castration is not necessary, compared to Serbian (4.7±1.1) and B&H (4.9±0.9)
consumers. On average, Western Balkan consumers, slightly disagree that meat from castrated pigs is leaner (3.7±1.1)
and they neither agree nor disagree that they prefer to eat meat from castrated pigs (4.0±1.3) or that pig castration
with vaccines improves pork quality (4.0±1.5). There are differences in consumer’s attitudes towards surgical
castration by country of origin, but further work is needed to find segments of consumers according to their attitudes.
The authors would like to acknowledge networking support by the COST Action IPEMA CA 15215 ‘Innovative
approaches in pork production with entire males’.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Agricultural Sciences > Animal and dairy science Agricultural Sciences > Veterinary science
Divisions:	Faculty of Agriculture
Depositing User:	Dimitar Nakov
Date Deposited:	20 Sep 2023 11:18
Last Modified:	20 Sep 2023 11:18
URI:	https://eprints.ugd.edu.mk/id/eprint/30987

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