Effect of a Non-antibiotic Feed Additive (Royal Nutrazyme™) on Nursery Pig Performance

Profitable pork production revolves around increasing average daily gain and feed efficiency and decreasing mortalities. Many health products exist to aid the pork producer in achieving a high health status herd. Antimicrobial products such as Mecadox® are traditionally utilized in the nursery phase. New non-antimicrobial derived products such as oregano oil are also entering the market. To determine the efficacy of these two products a trial was carried out at Iowa Lakes Community College. Four groups of pigs were monitored for growth rate, feed consumption and morbidity. Through the nursery phase, both products improved growth rate over a non-medicated control diet.