Effects of Outpace™ Feed Additive on Nursery Pig Performance

Two experiments were performed to determine the effects of Outpace™ feed additive (PMI Nutritional Additives, Shoreview, MN) on growth performance of nursery pigs. Each experiment utilized 280 (14 reps/trt) crossbred pigs (PIC 337), with an initial BW of 6.11 kg. Pigs were weaned at 20 d of age and were allotted 5 barrows and 5 gilts per pen and assigned to 1 of 2 dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. The 2 treatments consisted of the following: 1) Control (CNT) and 2) Control + OutPace (OP). Diets were fed in 5 phases, with the first diet being a common diet for all pigs. Outpace was included at 0.50% of diet in 2^nd and 3^rd phases and at 0.25% of the diet in the 4^th and 5^th phases at the expense of corn. Diets were comparable to a standard 5 phase nursery program and were formulated on an ME and SID Lysine basis. No medications were added to the diets throughout either experiment. Feed disappearance and BW were recorded to calculate ADG, ADFI, and G:F. Data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure in SAS with pen serving as the experimental unit. Effects tested included experiment, treatment, and the experiment and treatment interaction. There were no experiment by treatment interactions (P > 0.10), thus data from the 2 experiments were pooled. From d 0-21, there was no difference (P > 0.10) in ADG (249 vs. 248 g), ADFI (309 vs. 303 g), or G:F (0.81 vs. 0.82) between treatments. From d 21-42, there was a tendency (P = 0.09) for ADG (517 vs 530 g) to be greater for pigs fed the Outpace diet than those fed the control diet, but there were no differences (P = 0.50) in ADFI (784 vs 792 g) or G:F (0.66 vs 0.67) between treatments. For the overall period (d 0-42), there was no treatment effect (P > 0.10) on ADG (381 vs 390 g) or ADFI (537 vs 536 g). However, there was an improvement (P = 0.01) in G:F (0.71 vs 0.73) for pigs fed the Outpace treatment in comparison to those fed the control treatment. There was no treatment effect (P > 0.10) on morbidity or mortality. These results suggest that Outpace fed during the nursery phase had no effect on ADFI, but increased ADG (d 21-42) and improved feed efficiency from day 0-42.