The researchers gave study subjects pork containing androstenone and separated them into two groups -- those who found the smell offensive and those who didn't. Genetic analysis of the subjects revealed that those who didn't like the smell had two copies of a specific form of a gene known as OR7D4. The others had only one copy of the gene.
But, it turns out, most people don't even notice the smell of androstenone.
"In North America and Europe, pigs are castrated, so the concentration of androstenone is quite low," said Hiroaki Matsunami, a co-author and associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University Medical Center. "The only time you find a high concentration of androsteone is when you eat wild boar meat."That could soon change, however. The researchers noted that the European Union is considering a ban on castration because of concerns over animal welfare, and this debate has rekindled interest in how humans perceive the smell of pork and why two people may smell it differently.
The European financial collapse cannot come quickly enough.
Cooking mature boar meat inside your home will surely render it virtually uninhabitable for at least 24 hours. Been there, done that.
It stinks!
Pig piss in a pan is the only way to describe it.
Okay, just had a thought. Can castrated Europeans smell that stuff?
I mean, that might be the easier road to go...
Can castrated Europeans smell that stuff?
Apparently some of them can...
None of this will be of concern once Islam has taken over Europe. Pigs will be on the extinction list.
There goes the European pork industry.
Being an ex pig farmer and having castrated a few thousand pigs, I can say it bothers them during the process and is forgotten as soon as it is over - about 25 seconds.
I don't know Ward, I have been married a few times,and I can still feel it.
Stinky meat and farmers being killed by a pen full of boars. I vote we give it to the Arabs right now instead of waiting 30 or 40 years. The place is lost already.
While on our shores bureaucrats are working on how you may raise chickens. Peta has been busy here too.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7953791
Or the Euros are trying an economic war gambit of banning castrated imports just like banning GM food was used to wage economic war based on phoney health concerns with animal cruelty as the excuse this time.
Gaylord and Ward, you have that right.
As someone already mentioned, a castrated Europe won't know the difference.
So now we have an Islamist Peta coalition?
Low hanging fruit ............
One can only hope, Revnant Dream, that "Pigs will be on the extinction list"
Every filthy maggot one of them...
No doubt steers will be next. Thats no bull!
Hamming it up
"The researchers noted that the European Union is considering a ban on castration because of concerns over animal welfare"
But the ban on Halal animal killing comes first because it's cruel, yes?...
...Didn't think so.
When I smell pork, it means there's a politician around. And I lose my appetite then and there.
There are times in a Federally inspected facility when a pig is slaughtered and it has not dropped both testicles, one gone but not the other. If that pig passes inspection as a fresh cut it does not have a smell until cooking. If however it stays in the plant and goes to curing and smoking, you sure know there is a problem.
That is not the only reason for casterating pigs or any male domestic animal. Male animals left intact are more aggressive towards other animals and sometimes towards handlers. It is a matter of animal safety in some cases - you can put casterated males together in a pen and fighting will be minimal but put intact males together in a pen and death will ensue.
@ GB at May 6, 2012 11:40 AM
Now there is a obvious clue our justice system should take note of. Better deterent than a slap on the wrist and should make child molesters think twice. Just kidding.........or not.
In my comment above, I forgot to mention, the Fed. Dept. of Agriculture, grades these hogs as Grade 8, or ridgling, which is a hog with 1 or more internal testicles or a hermaphrodite. And cooking such meat produces a very strong urine smell. Boars are also graded and in both cases if used are mixed in very small quantities in the total mix of highly spiced sausage.
You mean we have to forget what the word "steer" means?