Supermarkets are to put three cents per kilogram of pork they buy wholesale into a fund which will be used to pay towards anaesthetising piglets before they are castrated, reports ANP news service.

To qualify for the ‘castration subsidy’ the country’s 3,500 pig farmers must go on a course to learn how to use anaesthetics. The total cost of the shift to castration under anaesthetic is €3.7m.