Reduced Use of Antibiotic Growth Promoters in Diets Fed to Weanling Pigs: Dietary Tools, Part 1

Abstract

Antibiotics improve health and productive performance of pigs. There is increasing evidence that other dietary ingredients may provide similar, but probably not identical, benefits. A properly prepared immune egg product, spray-dried plasma, or a high level of dietary zinc can provide protection against enteric infection in young pigs. Spray-dried plasma also increases growth rate dramatically, and zinc increases it substantially. The evidence in refereed publications also indicates that organic acids increase growth rate substantially, but does not clearly identify the most effective acid or combination of acids. Whey proteins, lactose, mannan oligosaccharide, or a high level of dietary copper provides a modest but useful increase in growth rate. It is not clear whether conventional egg products or other milk proteins may be beneficial. There are many other feed ingredients commercially available that may improve health and productive performance of pigs.

Bacteriophage cocktail and multi-strain probiotics in the feed for weanling pigs: effects on intestine morphology and targeted intestinal coliforms and Clostridium

“…To counteract these effects, antibiotic growth promoters are commonly added to weanling pig diets to maintain gut health and to improve growth performance. However, persistent use of antibiotics in animal feed has resulted in problems like emergence of drug resistant bacteria, imbalance of normal intestinal microflora and antibioticresidue in animal products (Schwarz et al, 2001), which has led to the total ban or restriction on the use of antibiotic growth promoters in many countries including the Republic of Korea (Pettigrew, 2006;GAIN, 2011). Therefore, the search continues for non-antibacterial growth promoters that are active in vivo, are fast acting, possess a broad spectrum in activity, do not induce bacterial resistance and subsequently promote growth performance of pigs.…”

Effect of Carbohydrate Composition in Barley and Oat Cultivars on Microbial Ecophysiology and Proliferation of Salmonella enterica in an In Vitro Model of the Porcine Gastrointestinal Tract

“…Manipulating the composition and metabolic activity of the gut microbiota through the diet to improve gut health is an increasing focus of nutritionists in the postantibiotic era. Different strategies, including the use of prebiotics, probiotics, organic acids, or zinc, have been used to manipulate the intestinal ecosystem (31,36). Surprisingly, the fact that compounds in the basal diet, such as indigestible carbohydrates (CHO) in cereal, can also affect the intestinal microbial ecophysiology is often neglected by nutritionists.…”

Board Invited Review: Management and feeding strategies to ameliorate the impact of removing antibiotic growth promoters from diets fed to weanling pigs

“…Use of animal proteins during the immediate post-weaning period is, therefore, widely recommended. In particular, use of spray-dried plasma protein in diets fed to newly weaned pigs appears to offer some protection against enteric diseases and diarrhea as recently reviewed (van Dijk et al 2001;Pettigrew 2006;Torrallardona 2010). …”

“…It is, therefore, important that procedures to alleviate these problems be identified. Alternative dietary tools have been described and recent reviews have summarized the research that has been conducted in this area (Pettigrew 2006;Stein and Kil 2006;Gallois et al 2009;Lalle`s et al 2009). However, it is recognized that it is also important to consider many aspects of swine management if pigs are to be successfully produced without AGP (Doyle 2001), but experiences using different management and feeding strategies have not been summarized.…”