Swine growth hormone hikes feed efficiency
UNIVERSITY PARK - A
naturally-occurring hormone in
swine has been found to increase
their growth rate by almost 10
percent and improve feed ef
ficiency by 5 percent, researchers
at Penn State say.
The swine “growth hormone”
if developed into a product which
could be administered practically
could in the future save the pork
industry as much as $3 billion per
year, says T.D. Etherton, assistant
professor of animal nutrition at
Penn State.
Findings of a study on the hor
mone’s effects will be presented by
Etherton and doctoral candidate
C.S. Chung at the 75th annual
meeting of the American Society of
Animal Science, set for July 26-29
at Washington State University in
Pullman, Wash.
The study included extracting
the hormone from swine, purifying
it and then administering it to
them for 30 days, Dr. Etherton
explains. Results indicated that
growth rate was increased 9.5
percent while feed efficiency was
enhanced 5 percent.
The hormone also increased the
animals’ cartilage growth and did
not cause any adverse health
problems.
“The ultimate objective of this
type of research is trying to get the
animal to grow more efficiently
and produce less fat,” he says.
The pork industry could save
between $1 billion and $3 billion
annually if the hormone was
developed for regular use, Dr.
Etherton believes, because the
animals would consume less feed
to produce the same amount of
meat.
“Results of the study suggest
that there are ways of
manipulating animal growth to
produce lean, edible meat more
efficiently,” he notes, “Further
research with this particular
hormone will indicate whether this
is possible. Research has been
constrained thus far because of the
availability of the naturally
occurring hormone. With the
advent of DNA recombinant
technology, however, the potential
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 4,1983—£29
exists for the production of suf
ficient quantities of the swine
growth hormone to be used in
future studies.”
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