With an EU-wide ban on piglet castration without anaesthetic due to start in 2019, solutions to make the process as easy as possible for those that wish to continue castrating are beginning to appear on the market.
One such solution on show at EuroTier 2016 in Hanover was the Porc-Anest 3000 from Swiss-based company Promatec Automation.
Made to take three pigs at a time, the unit allows a piglet to be placed in a cradle and its head pushed forward into an anaesthesia mask where it is exposed to a five per cent by volume concentration of isoflurane anaesthetic for 90 seconds to send it to sleep.
The cradle is then rotated by 180 degrees to allow castration to take place, and the piglet is then removed and returned to its pen. It will wake up four to five minutes after the gas flow stops.
Up to 90 pigs an hour can be anaesthetised and castrated using the system, which is battery operated and can be placed on a trolley to move through the farrowing house.
The system has been used in Switzerland since 2010 and is now being introduced to Germany to gauge farmer reaction. One issue the distributor will have to deal with, however, is that it’s currently illegal for German farmers to use the system without a vet present – although it’s hoped that farmers who want to use it can be put through a training course and be certificated, which is how the system is used in Switzerland.
The cost of the three-pig Porc-Anest 3000 is 7,850 euros (correct at November 2016), with a suitable trolley and other ancilliary equipment brining the cost up to about 10,000 euros.
The treatment cost is 20 cents/pig for the isoflurane plus labour; and in Germany there would be an added cost of about 1.00 to 1.50 euros/pig to have a vet present, depending on throughput.
For more information visit: www.promatec.ch.
