Antibiotics for Growing-Finishing Swine

The use of antibiotics in swine rations has be come a recognized practice to the point where most swine growing-finishing rations contain them . There is evidence that certain antibiotics added to rations improve the growth rate of pigs under most conditions but not always. The most commonly reported effect of antibiotics is a more uniform growth response of the pigs. Fewer unthrifty, slow-growing individuals occur in a group of pigs, and thus the average rate of gain is increased. There is usually little or no improvement in the performance of the more rapidly growing pigs. During the past few years, new antibiotic feed supplements have been introduced for addition to swine feeds. The objective of the following experiment was to study the effectiveness of new antibiotics and certain combinations of these antibiotics for stimulating gains in growing-finishing swine