How a feed additive makes pigs leaner without making them grow faster
Effects of ractopamine on performance and composition of pigs phenotypically sorted into fat and lean groups.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Farmers gave pigs a special feed additive called ractopamine to help them turn food into muscle instead of fat. The pigs ate less but got better at using their food, and became leaner — but they didn’t get heavier.
Surprising Findings
Ractopamine improved feed efficiency and reduced fat without increasing weight gain.
Common belief is that feed additives like ractopamine make animals grow faster; this study shows they can make them leaner without any growth boost.
Practical Takeaways
Farmers can use ractopamine at 10 ppm in the final 28 days to reduce feed costs by 10–15% and improve lean meat yield without changing final weight.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Farmers gave pigs a special feed additive called ractopamine to help them turn food into muscle instead of fat. The pigs ate less but got better at using their food, and became leaner — but they didn’t get heavier.
Surprising Findings
Ractopamine improved feed efficiency and reduced fat without increasing weight gain.
Common belief is that feed additives like ractopamine make animals grow faster; this study shows they can make them leaner without any growth boost.
Practical Takeaways
Farmers can use ractopamine at 10 ppm in the final 28 days to reduce feed costs by 10–15% and improve lean meat yield without changing final weight.
Publication
Journal
Journal of animal science
Year
2005
Authors
K. J. Mimbs, T. Pringle, M. Azain, S. Meers, T. A. Armstrong
Related Content
Claims (6)
Ractopamine is a drug given to pigs and cattle that tricks their bodies into building more muscle and less fat, so they grow faster and need less food to gain weight.
Pigs bred to be lean grow muscle faster in the middle of their finishing stage than pigs bred to be fat, but by the end of 28 days, both types end up with about the same amount of muscle.
When pigs are fed a special additive called ractopamine, they eat about 10–15% less food over a month, but they still grow just as well—and they use the food they do eat more efficiently, like a smarter eater.
Adding a specific feed additive called ractopamine to pig food helps pigs grow more meat while eating less feed—especially in the last two weeks of the feeding period—and this works no matter how fat or skinny the pig was when they started.
When pigs are fed a special feed additive called ractopamine at a certain strength, they grow leaner muscle and less fat—especially after about a month—making their meat more muscle and less fatty.