Antibiotics may be one way hog producers can get lightweight pigs up to scale.
John Deen, a swine researcher with North Carolina State University, studied the effect of tylosin in a feeder barn with 3,400 pigs.
Pigs fed the antibiotic gained an average of two kilograms more than the control group.
The difference was greatest among the lightest 20 percent of the pigs. Those fed the antibiotic gained 4.1 kg more than those in the control group.
There was no significant difference in the heaviest 20 percent of the pigs.
Deen said he thinks certain diseases have a greater effect on varying weights in the feeder barn, but more research is needed.
