A one-time injection of an anti-inflammatory agent used in veterinary and human medicine may help newborn pigs get off to a better start.
Repeated small-scale tests by United States Department of Agriculture scientists have shown that dexamethasone injections result in a 12 percent gain in body weight during the first 18 days of life.
It is a synthetic version of a type of hormone – a corticoi – that is naturally produced by animals under stress.
Cutting by just one day the length of time it takes pigs to reach market weight could boost hog producers’ annual income by tens of millions of dollars.
As a result, researchers want to see whether the first hour of birth is the best time for treating newborn pigs with dexamethasone.
They are also beginning to test the one-time treatment’s long-term effects on pigs by measuring the rate of weight gain, amount of feed consumed per pound of gain, and body composition at market weight.
