Illinois study finds virginiamycin may reduce swine feed costs

University of Illinois researchers have found that virginiamycin, a feed additive, can help swine producers save money on feed costs this year.

For decades, swine producers have recognised an increase in swine growth and performance when virginiamycin was added to their corn-soymeal feed rations.

University of Illinois researchers have recently discovered that this increase in growth is partly due to the increase in ileal amino acid digestibility.

Hans Stein, University of Illinois associate professor in the department of animal sciences said, "Virginiamycin is a popular feed additive in swine diets throughout the world. It's typically used to achieve higher feed efficiency and results in less feed needed to put on a pound of gain."

However, until now, there remains an unclear understanding of what causes this improvement. Stein's team discovered that amino acid digestibility improved as soon as virginiamycin was added to the diet. When it was removed from the diet, digestibility returned to baseline. The effects only lasted as long as virginiamycin was included in the diet.

"This information is helpful to producers because it provides an explanation of why virginiamycin can help improve feed conversion," Stein said. "Producers can use less feed and fewer amino acids when they add this product to a diet because amino acids are better utilised by the pig."

This potential savings on formulation cost could increase the use of virginiamycin in swine diets.

"We've shown it has a positive effect on digestibility," Stein said. "Now it's up to the producers to decide if it makes sense to use it from an economic standpoint. We believe it can lower diet cost a little due to this increase in digestibility."