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Controversy over boar semen: Which genetic ranking is justified?
The OVG North Rhine-Westphalia will negotiate legal disputes regarding the testing of boar sperm on June 26, 2025.
Controversy over boar semen: Which genetic ranking is justified?
On June 26, 2025, the North Rhine-Westphalia Higher Administrative Court (OVG) will hear an exciting legal dispute over boar semen - an issue that is of crucial importance for the quality of pig breeding. It's all about a product test from 2016, which not only caused legal waves, but also attracted the interest of farmers. Loud n-tv A state-recognized animal breeding organization received the worst grades compared to its competitors, which led to a heated dispute over the publication of the test results.
The plaintiff, who opposes the publication, believes that the negative results of his organization are unjustified. In a product test carried out in 2014 on behalf of the “Wochenblatt für Agriculture und Ruralleben”, the origin of his boars was only satisfactory+, while other organizations were rated as good and good+. The lawsuit is directed against the North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture, which commissioned the product test at the suggestion of the trade magazine, and the legal disputes promptly cast a shadow over the entire industry.
A lengthy legal battle
The Münster Administrative Court had already decided on April 2, 2019 that the results of the product test may not be published. The court found that an announcement constituted an unjustified interference with the plaintiff's freedom to practice because there was no legal basis for such publication. Violators face high fines of up to 250,000 euros. The problem also lies in the way the results are presented: grades and a traffic light system were used, which violates the principle of objectivity. There were also deficiencies in comparability because the boar semen was not treated anonymously and the conditions in the piglet production farms were different whiblow reported.
Boar semen as a sought-after export item
As this legal battle unfolds, the issue of boar semen is illuminated in a different light: it is in high demand internationally, particularly in countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic. The Pig Insemination Union, based in Stuttgart, exports around 14,000 tubes of boar semen every month. Boar semen is collected in special bags and goes through a careful process to ensure quality. Another provider, the Federal Hybrid Breeding Program (BHZP) GmbH from Dahlenburg, serves markets in Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe. In 2020, about 10% of the 1.6 million semen portions were exported, underscoring the high international demand, as Stuttgart News highlights.
The quality of German boar semen is highly valued, so despite a decline in the number of pig farms in Germany, demand continues to increase, particularly due to African swine fever in Eastern Europe. A circumstance that promises good business for farmers in the region while at the same time they wait for the legal conflicts surrounding the test results to be resolved.