Surgical castration of piglets without pain relief is still common practice in many countries. Possible alternatives for surgical castration are application of pain relief or anaesthesia or production of boars (entire males) and immunocastrates. Each of these alternatives faces advantages and disadvantages which may result in different citizen attitudes and consumers acceptability. Understanding which practice is acceptable to whom and why may further stimulate implementation. Consumer (n = 3251) and stakeholder (n = 1027) attitudes towards surgical castration without pain relief, surgical castration with anaesthesia, immunocastration, and production of boars were surveyed from April to June 2020 via an online questionnaire in 16 countries (>175 respondents per country). Surgical castration without pain relief was separated from each of the alternatives due to animal welfare and showed the lowest acceptability (32%). Within the alternatives, a further partitioning between the alternatives was based on perceived quality and food safety, with an acceptance of 85% for applying anaesthesia, 71% for immunocastration, and 49% for boar production. Differences depending on professional involvement and familiarity with agriculture could be observed, mainly for the acceptance of surgical castration without anaesthesia, immunocastration, and boars. Castration with anaesthesia was highly accepted by all types of respondents.

The aim of this exploratory work, because of the existing bias on the size of the sample and some of the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, was to investigate the Eastern European consumers’ beliefs and attitudes toward animal welfare, to perform a cross-country segmentation analysis and to observe possible differences with their Western European counterparts. For this purpose, a survey was conducted with 5508 consumers from 13 Eastern European countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, North Macedonia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine) using a questionnaire with nine statements about consumers beliefs regarding animal welfare (aspects of management, ethical issues about animals, and consequences of animal welfare on meat quality and price), one statement about the willingness to pay more for meat produced under better welfare conditions, and four statements regarding attitudes toward animal welfare. Differences between countries were detected for all the statements. Moreover, three clusters of consumers were identified: one with consumers indifferent towards animal welfare; one with consumers concerned about animal welfare, but they believe it is difficult to achieve; and one with consumers concerned about animal welfare, and they believe it is possible to achieve it.

Background: Independent studies have shown that several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the human FTO ( fat mass and obesity associated ) gene are associated with obesity. SNP have also been identified in the pig FTO gene, among which some are associated with selected fat-deposition traits in F ₂ crosses and commercial populations. In this study, using both commercial pig populations and an experimental Meishan × Pietrain F ₂ population, we have investigated the association between one FTO SNP and several growth and carcass traits. Association analyses were performed with the FTO polymorphism either alone or in combination with polymorphisms in flanking loci. Methods: SNP (FM244720:g.400C>G) in exon 3 of porcine FTO was genotyped by PCR-RFLP and tested for associations with some growth, carcass and fat-related traits. Proportions of genetic variance of four pig chromosome 6 genes ( FTO , RYR1 , LIPE and TGFB1 ) on selected traits were evaluated using single- and multi-locus models. Results: Linkage analysis placed FTO on the p arm of pig chromosome 6, approximately 22 cM from RYR1 . In the commercial populations, allele C of the FTO SNP was significantly associated with back fat depth and allele G with muscling traits. In the Meishan × Pietrain F ₂ pigs, heterozygotes with allele C from the Pietrain sows and allele G from the Meishan boar were more significantly associated with fat-related traits compared to homozygotes with allele G from the Pietrain and allele G from the Meishan breed. In single- and multi-locus models, genes RYR1 , TGFB1 and FTO showed high associations. The contribution in genetic variance from the polymorphism in the FTO gene was highest for back fat depth, meat area on the musculus longissimus lumborum et thoracis tissues and metabolite glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Conclusions: Our results show that in pig, FTO influences back fat depth in the commercial populations, while in the Meishan × Pietrain F ₂ pigs with a CG genotype, heterosis occurs for several fat-related traits.

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The objectives were to evaluate the effects of sire and content of fresh or ionised egg yolk in extenders on sperm motility and share of live and dead sperm in collected ejaculate, in thawed artificial insemination (AI) doses, and during thermodynamic testing compared to extenders not containing egg yolk. Ejaculates were collected once a week from 4 Holstein bulls. Each of the 20 ejaculate samples from each bull was diluted with 4 different extenders. AndroMed and Bioxcell (no egg yolk) and Triladyl and Optidyl (fresh, ionised egg yolk) were used. A total of 640 AI doses were analysed. The volume of samples, sperm concentration, and percentage of motile spermatozoa were evaluated after collection, as was sperm motility after thawing of AI doses and during thermodynamic testing. Percentages of live and dead sperm were also evaluated. The data set was analysed using SAS/STAT 9.1 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). The results confirmed significant (P<0.05–0.01) between-sire differences in the volume, density, and activity of sperm as well as in share of live and dead sperm after collection; in decline of sperm motility in the fresh ejaculate, after thawing, and during the entire thermodynamic test, as well as in the share of live and dead sperm after thawing. The extenders ranked by sperm motility are: Optidyl, Triladyl, AndroMed, and Bioxcell, demonstrating the higher quality of AI doses produced using egg yolk extenders. Differences in sperm motility were significant (P<0.05–0.01) during the entirety of thermodynamic testing. Egg yolk extenders had a significantly (P<0.05–0.01) higher percentages of live sperm after thawing.

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