LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

GROUP 1, SESSION A: ANIMAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
18. Life cycle thinking applied to an immunological product (vaccine)
used for boar taint control in male pigs
Paulo Moraes 1 , Jim Allison 1 , Joseph A. Robinson 1 , Stéphan Martin 1 , Gian Luca Baldo 2 , Paola Borla 2
1 Pfizer Animal Health, USA and Europe, 2 Life Cycle Engineering (LCE), Italy, * Corresponding author. E-
mail: baldo@studiolce.it
In 2009, Pfizer Animal Health decided to apply the LCA methodology to some innovative products, with a
first case-study on Improvac ® , an immunological product (vaccine) for male pigs that provides farmers with
an alternative way to avoid the problem of boar taint: its use increases the efficiency of male pig production
and could consequently provide life-cycle environmental benefits.
A meaningful LCA study of the vaccine required the collection, with a global perspective, of reliable data
about the life-cycle environmental burden of an average farm that uses or not the product. Information from
within-farm comparative studies was also integrated into the analysis. This led to an understanding of any
possible environmental benefits of the vaccine’s adoption by benchmarking against existing, traditional practices
(castration).
The two most relevant phases contributing to the life-cycle environmental burden of the examined system are
the production of feed given to pigs and pig slurry management (Fig. 1). Starting from the feed recipe, an
interesting close examination was conducted on agricultural practices by country, providing a valuable description
of how feed production burden changes according to local conditions (yields, fertiliser use, etc.).
The same conclusion applies to different slurry management procedures and technologies. Overall, the LCA
provided meaningful information for use by farmers who are interested in reducing their carbon footprint
when rearing swine for pork meat.
The study shows a reduction in the environmental impacts considered for the vaccinated pig life cycle compared
to the castrated one. In particular, the calculated carbon footprint for the Improvac pig system demonstrates
a reduction vs. the physically castrated pig system of 3.7% in terms of kg live-weight; given the annual
production of pigs reared globally for protein consumption (about 500M males), this carbon footprint
reduction is incrementally significant and supports the adoption of Improvac over the traditional approach of
castrating boars.
The product is approved for use and distributed in nearly all pig producing countries worldwide: from South
America to the US and from Europe to Australia, including the world leader in swine production, China.
The Improvac Environmental Product Declaration was first published in January 2011 on the International
EPD register and renewed in early 2012 after the required external review by a third party
(www.environdec.com).
References
Allison J., McKeith F., C Souza, Boler D., Killefer J. Hennessy D., 2009. Impact of using vaccination with
IMPROVAC® rather than physical castration on the carcass characteristics of finishing male pigs in
ICOMST, 55 th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology, Copenhagen 16-21 August 2009,
Denmark, paper n° 7.38.
Basset-Mens C., Van der Werf H.M.G., Durand P., Leterme P., 2006. Implications of uncertainty and variability
in the life cycle assessment of pig production systems. Int J LCA 11, 298-304.
Dunshea F., Colantoni C., Howard K., McCauley I., Jackson P., Long K.A., Lopaticki S., Nugent E.A.,
Simons J.A., Walker J., Hennessy D.P., 2001. Vaccination of boars with a GnRH vaccine (Improvac®)
eliminates boar taint and increases growth performance. J. Anim. Sci. 79, 2524-2535.
European Commission, 2003. Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Reference Document on
Best Available Techniques for Intensive Rearing of Poultry and Pigs. JRC.
Fàbrega E., Velarde A., Cros J., Gispert M., Suárez P., Tibau J., Soler J., 2010. Effect of vaccination against
gonadotrophin-releasing hormone, using Improvac®, on growth performance, body composition, behaviour
and acute phase proteins. Livest Prod Sci 132, 53-59.
Pfizer Animal Health, 2011. Environmental Product Declaration of Improvac (N° S-P-00261). The EPD
International System.
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