The efficacy of salinomycin as a growth promotant for swine from 9 to 97 kg.

Six trials involving 586 pigs initially averaging 9 kg were conducted at three locations (two trials/location) to evaluate the effects of the dietary addition of 0, 27.5, 55, 82.5 and 110 ppm of a monocarboxylic polyether antibiotic, salinomycin, on feed intake, growth rate and feed efficiency of swine fed corn-soybean meal-based diets. Over the total trial (9 to 97 kg), quadratic improvements in gain (P less than .01) and feed:gain (P less than .04) occurred with increasing level of salinomycin, but feed intake was not affected (P greater than .25). Mean improvements for all drug levels over control values for the total trial were 4.3% for daily gain (P less than .01) and 3.4% for feed:gain (P less than .01). For the total trial, rate and efficiency of gain were optimized in pigs fed the 82.5-ppm level of salinomycin with an improvement of 5.2% in daily gain and 4.8% in feed:gain over pigs fed the control diet. The absence of any significant trial X treatment interaction suggests that the nature of the response was not dependent on differences in environment, management or other factors that existed among trial locations.