Antibiotic Growth Promoters in Nursery Pig Diets

September 12, 2005 — (Ed. David Burch)
  [ES]

Concern regarding the use of antibiotics in livestock feeds and its potential association with antibiotic resistance in humans is widespread. The issue has become highly politicized worldwide resulting in the introduction of legislation proposing bans on the use of antimicrobials in animal feeds in the US, and the outright ban in some countries such as Sweden, Denmark and the European Union. In 2005, bills were introduced in the US Senate (S. 742) and House of Representatives (H.R. 2562) calling for bans on the use of certain antimicrobials at growth-promotant levels in US livestock. These bills are currently in committee. In addition, the use of these compounds has the potential to become a barrier on trade as well.

Examination of Danish records and discussion with Danish researchers, government officials, veterinarians and swine producers indicates that the results from the antimicrobial bans in 1995 and 1999 have been mixed. The initial ban in grow-finish feeds appears to have had little negative effect on swine production. The 1999 extension of the ban to include nursery rations, however, appears to have had significant negative impacts on the level of disease treatments, mortalities and growth performance. Consequentially, the use of therapeutic antimicrobials in swine production has risen dramatically.

The August, 2005 edition of Swine News published by the NC State Swine Extension Service contains an article reviewing the use of antimicrobial growth promoters in swine diets and explores some possible alternatives. The article outlines the performance enhancement characteristics associated with the use of growth-promotant levels of antimicrobials especially in nursery diets.

The article cites numerous scientific studies illustrating improvements in feed efficiency, average daily gain, and mortality rates. The author concludes that "none of the potential alternatives that have been proposed are as effective in improving growth as antibiotics" and surmises that swine farmers would experience some reduction in performance if growth-promoting antimicrobials were removed from nursery diets.

Sources:
http://mark.asci.ncsu.edu/Swine_News/2005/sn_v2807.htm
http://www.dfvf.dk/Files/Filer/Zoonosecentret/Publikationer/Danmap/Danmap_2004.pdf