Pfizer Animal Health says interest is building in a product newly registered in Canada as an alternative to physical castration of boars.
Boar taint is an unpleasant odor or flavor that affects the meat of some intact male pigs and is most commonly addressed through castration.
Pfizer Animal Health received approval from the Veterinary Drug Directorate of Health Canada in August for the sale of IMPROVEST in Canada, a product designed to help eliminate boar taint without the need for castration, and the product is being introduced gradually through a series of pilot projects.
IMPROVEST team leader Peter van Vloten says Pfizer is working closely with veterinarians, producers, nutritionists, extension people and packers to ensure the use of IMPROVEST provides real benefits.
The technology around IMPROVEST was actually developed in Australia.
The development started probably about 25 years ago and was actually registered for commercial use in Australia about 12 or 13 years ago.
Since that time there’s been extensive research done on IMPROVEST and both through regulatory trials and through commercial trails and now of course through commercial implementation as well.
IMPROVEST is registered in 60 countries now including of course Canada just recently, the United States, Japan, China, all of the European Union, a good portion of South America and many other countries in the world as well.
Van Vloten says through extensive research and commercial use in millions of pigs over the past 12 years, IMPROVEST has been proven effective and safe.
He says there had been a lot of interest among Canadian pork producers and processors even before registration and certainly, after registration, that interest is building.
For more on IMPROVEST contact Pfizer Animal Health, your local veterinarian or visit www.boartaint.com.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
