Are there any alternatives to antibiotics in pig diets that have similar effects on the efficiency of production?
Currently there is no single substance, which could replace the function of feed antibiotics. Moreover, any single substance (e.g. zinc oxide), which is intended to replace the role of antibiotics in farm animals, will be subject to the intense scrutiny that antibiotics have been subjected to over the past 40 years. Since the growth benefit found from feeding antibiotics is achieved through many different effects on the gut, the strategy for replacing them will depend on a combination of nutritional, housing and husbandry factors. Over the years a number of alternative feed additives have been tried often in combination with existing antimicrobials, such as antibiotics, zinc oxide and copper sulphate. A review of the scientific literature suggests that, in general, alternative additives provide little consistent growth benefit. Among the more promising are organic acids, fermentable substrates and enzymes. The efficacy of the many individual feed additives promoted as alternatives to a
