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Eunuchs are biological males who have undergone voluntary castration for reasons other than male-to-female transsexualism. The term 'eunuch wannabe' refers to individuals who desire, or are planning, voluntary castration. Out of fear of embarrassment or rejection, many eunuch wannabes do not consult medical professionals regarding their desire for voluntary castration. Instead, they commonly resort to self-castration, castration by nonmedical professionals, or self-inflicted testicular damage via injections of toxic substances. Urologists should be aware of the growing popularity of these procedures. In particular, intratesticular injection of toxins is performed so that urologists will remove the damaged testicles.

Isoflurane-anaesthesia combined with an analgesic represents a welfare-friendly method of pain mitigation for castration of piglets. However, it requires an inhaler device, which is uneconomic for small farms. Sharing a device among farms may be an economical option if the shared use does not increase labour time and the resulting costs. This study aimed to investigate the amount and components of labour time required for piglet castration with isoflurane anaesthesia performed with stationary and shared devices. Piglets (N = 1579) were anaesthetised with isoflurane (using either stationary or shared devices) and castrated.The stationary devices were used in a group (n = 5) of larger farms (84 sows/farm on an average), whereas smaller farms (n = 7; 32 sows/farm on an average) shared one device. Each farm was visited four times and labour time for each process-step was recorded. The complete process included machine set-up, anaesthesia and castration by a practitioner, and preparation, collection and transport of piglets by a farmer. Labour time of the complete process was increased (P = 0.012) on farms sharing a device (266 s/piglet) compared to farms using stationary devices (177 s/ piglet), due to increased time for preparation (P = 0.055), castration (P = 0.026) and packing (P = 0.010) when sharing a device. However, components of the time budget of farms using stationary or shared devices did not differ significantly (P > 0.05). Cost arising from time spent by farmers did not differ considerably between the use of stationary (0.28 Euro per piglet) and shared (0.26 Euro) devices. It is concluded that costs arising from the increased labour time due to sharing a device can be considered marginal, since the high expenses originating from purchasing an inhaler device are shared among several farms.

Chemical castration laws, such as one recently adopted in the U.S. State of Louisiana, raise challenging ethical concerns for physicians. Even if such interventions were to prove efficacious, which is far from certain, they would still raise troubling concerns regarding the degree of medical risk that may be imposed upon prisoners in the name of public safety as well as the appropriate role for physicians and other health care professionals in the administration of pharmaceuticals to competent prisoners over the inmates' unequivocal objections. This paper argues that the concerns raised by chemical castration are grave enough that, until they are adequately addressed by policymakers, physicians ought not to participate in the process.

Pork consumers know little about boar taint and the methods used to avoid it. As such, relevant information is necessary to assist consumers to judge the acceptability of different strategies to avoid boar taint. The effect of basic (T1) or extensive (T2) written information or T2 with supplementary audio-visual information (AV) on the opinion concerning immunocastration (IC), raising entire male pigs (EM) and surgical castration with anaesthesia (SA) as compared to castration without anaesthesia (SC) was investigated in a student population. Overall, IC was significantly preferred over SC. The information condition influenced the preference for IC and EM as compared to SC. Participants exposed to AV were more positive to IC than participants exposed to T1 and T2, and more positive to EM than participants exposed to T2. The impact of information condition was not affected by gender, farming experience, knowledge about the boar taint issue or personal relevance of pig welfare. Potential effects of providing background information and media campaigns on public surveys ought to be considered. Supplementary audio-visual information increased the impact of information provisioning., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Castration in male pigs is usually performed during the first weeks of life without prior anesthesia. This technique, however, is known to induce acute pain and stress and will therefore not be tolerated any longer by animal welfare organizations. Practical and animal-friendly alternatives to surgical castration are the production of entire male pigs, semen sexing or immunological castration. Fattening boars has the benefits of better feed efficiency, higher lean meat yield and increased animal welfare due to no pain and stress of castration. The most important disadvantage in raising entire male pigs is the incidence of boar taint ranging between 10 and 75%. To identify tainted carcasses an accurate and rapid on-line method for detection of odorous compounds is absolutely necessary. Sperm sexing through flow cytometry is the only commercially available method at the moment but speed of separation is too low for practical application. Active immunization of boars against gonadotropin-releasing-hormone (GnRH) at the end of the fattening period results in a significant reduction of testicular weight and androstenone production while the benefits of daily growth gain, meat quality as well as welfare remain the same as in entire males. In the present review more detailed information is given about the various techniques, especially the practical application of immunocastration on a large scale base.

The cortisol response of calves to different methods of castration (ring, band, surgical, clamp) with or without local anaesthetic, or local anaesthetic plus a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug were recorded. All methods of castration caused a significant cortisol response and by inference pain and distress. Band castration caused a greater cortisol response than ring castration but the responses were eliminated by local anaesthetic. The cortisol response to surgical castration, by traction on the spermatic cords or by cutting across them with an emasculator, was not diminished by local anaesthetic but when ketoprofen was given with local anaesthetic the cortisol response was eliminated. Local anaesthetic did reduce the behavioural response to cutting the scrotum and handling the testes. Clamp castration caused the smallest cortisol response which was reduced or eliminated by local anaesthetic or local anesthetic plus ketoprofen respectively, but this method of castration was not always successful.