Two hundred sixteen crossbred barrows and gilts (84.3 kg BW) were used to test the effects of dietary energy density and lysine:energy ratio (Lys:ME) on the performance, carcass characteristics, and pork quality of finishing pigs fed 10 ppm ractopamine. Pigs were blocked by BW and gender, allotted to 36 pens (six pigs per pen), and pens were assigned randomly within blocks to dietary treatments...

Under farm conditions, aggression related to the formation of social hierarchy and competition for resources can be a major problem because of associated injuries, social stress, and carcass losses. Any factor that may affect the regulation and amount of aggression within a farmed system, for instance, feeding the beta-adrenoreceptor agonist ractopamine (RAC), is therefore worthy of investigati...

Objectives of this study were to determine the effects of feeding ractopamine hydrochloride (Optaflexx) with or without supplemental Zn propionate (KemTRACE Zn) and Cr propionate (KemTRACE Cr) to finishing steers on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and meat quality. Angus cross steers (n = 142; BW = 527 ± 14 kg) were blocked by BW into 4 blocks (6 pens/block, 5 to 6 steers/pen). Ste...

and ADFI at week 4 (P = 0.02). During phase 2 (week 3 to 4), greater ADG (P = 0.05) and ADFI (P = 0.004) were observed in pigs consuming a diet containing DDGS (Treatments B and D) compared to pigs that did not receive DDGS in phase 1 (Treatments A and C); however, G:F ratio was not affected by DDGS. There was a lactose effect on ADG in week 3 (P = 0.05) and a trend of lactose effect on ADG dur...

A strip reader based lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) was established for the rapid and quantitative detection of ractopamine (RAC) in swine urine. The ratio of the optical densities (ODs) of the test line (AT) to that of the control line (AC) was used to effectively minimize interference among strips and sample variations. The linear range for the quantitative detection of RAC was 0.2 ng/mL to ...

Horses fed beyond their nutritional requirement and that are physically inactive will develop obesity, which is often accompanied by insulin resistance and heightened risk of laminitis. The use of pharmacologic agents in combination with nutritional restriction may promote weight loss in obese horses unable to exercise because of laminitic pain. This study shows that reducing feed intake of bro...