Strategic use of Spray Dried Plasma (SDP) in grow-finish swine feed can be a health management option for farms to reduce reliance on AGP while maintaining pig health and performance. SDP provides a better economic return over feed cost compared to traditional use of AGP in grow-finish feed.

In a 2019 trial conducted under commercial conditions in Brazil by Lima et al., 1,500 grower pigs housed at 65 days of age were fed diets with either AGP or therapeutic pulses of prophylactic concentrations of antibiotics (ATP) or with SDP in various phases until slaughter (Table 1).

Table 1. Description of feed medication or SDP by treatment group and phase of experiment

ATP = Antibiotic therapeutic pulse dose; AGP = Antibiotic growth promoting; SDP = percentage of spraydried plasma used in feed to provide approximately 20 g SDP per day based on estimated feed intake by phase. ATP in placement feed provided 300 mg Doxyxycline/kg feed, 100 mg Tylosin/ kg feed and 3 mg Ivermectin/kg feed. AGP in grower 1, finisher 1 and pre-slaughter feed provided 12 mg Flavomycin/kg feed. ATP in grower 2 feed provided 450 mg Amoxillin/kg feed, 240 mg Leucomycin/ kg feed and 36 mg Abamectin/kg feed. ATP in finisher 2 feed provided,150 mg Florfenicol/kg feed. All finisher 2 feed contained 10 mg Ractopamine/kg feed. All pre-slaughter feed contained 15 mg Ractopamine/kg feed.

Figure 1. Average Daily Gain of pigs fed different inclusion of SDP replacing growth promoters and prophylactic antibiotics.

BOTTOM LINE

Pigs fed an antibiotic pulse, plus SDP had better performance.

In a 2020 study, Rangel et al. evaluated the effects of strategic use of SDP replacing antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in feed on health and performance of grow-finish pigs under commercial conditions in Brazil to determine if SDP can reduce reliance on antibiotics. A total of 240 grower pigs (65 d of age) were randomly assigned to either a control or SDP feed treatment group (10 pens per group). Both groups used the same therapeutic/prophylactic antibiotic (ATP) pulse program. The SDP group diets had 1.5% and 0.75% SDP formulated in the respective grower 1 and finisher 2 diets but did not include the AGP used in the control feed program (Table 2).

Table 2. Description of feed medication or SDP by treatment group and phase of experiment.

ATP = Antibiotic therapeutic/prophylactic pulse; AGP = Antibiotic growth promoting; SDP = percentage of spray dried plasma. Both groups included the same ATP program; Avilamycin 400 g/ton grower 1 and Florfenicol 350 g/ton, finisher 1. Organic acids (OA) were added at 1 kg/ton to all grower 1 diets. The SDP group had 1.5% or 0.75% SDP formulated in the respective grower 1 and finisher 2 diets but did not include AGP or MOS. Control diets included AGP; Flavomycin 100 g/ton grower 1, Flavomycin 250 g/ton grower 2, Tylosin 176 g/ton T in finisher 2 and finisher 3. Also, all control diets included 1 kg/ton of a MOS yeast cell wall product. All Finisher 2 and 3 diets contained 15 mg Ractopamine/kg feed. Adapted from Rangel et al., 2020.

Table 3. Performance and economic results.

SUMMARY

These studies confirm that strategic use of SDP in grow-finish pig feed was as effective as antibiotics, thus offering a novel approach to reduce reliance on antibiotics in accordance with new regulations for farm animals that are currently in place in Brazil.

BOTTOM LINE

Pigs in the SDP group had better:

For more of the article, please click here.

Article made possible through the contribution of APC

Strategic feeding of spray-dried plasma to reduce the reliance on antibiotics in grow-finish pigs