Results of the survey performed within the study «image of Swiss meat» 2006

Based on the results of a previous study, 800 representatively selected persons were questioned about their experiences with boar taint and about acceptance of alternatives to surgical castration of piglets without pain relief by means of face-to-face interviews. The main results are as follows:
Only a small part of the interviewees (16.4%) had experienced boar taint. For two thirds among them this had no impact on their consumption of pork meat. Nevertheless, the majority (63.1%) would not buy products made from tainted meat even if absence of any perceivable boar taint could be guaranteed. None of the methods was accepted. The interviewees had an undetermined opinion or rejected all methods. Immunocastration was refused by 56.0%. The method surgical castration of piglets under anaesthesia exhibited by far the least negative responses (17.7%). For the method rearing entire boars the processing of tainted meat is likely to be a determining factor for its acceptance. The term "immunocastration" is not perceived as negative. Only 10.8% of the interviewees wrongly associated it with the negatively identified term “hormones”.
For implementation of the different alternatives it has to be considered that familiar issues are preferred to unknown ones. Moreover, the implementation of new methods is expected to be more challenging in the German part of Switzerland than in the French part. Acceptance of the methods by women will be another important issue since they react more sensitively and do the major part of food shopping. For more reliable data with respect to the different alternatives, the interviewees have to be better informed. Additionally, other methods for collecting of data need to be considered.