Use of EO-FIT® Swine as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoters in piglets

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics as growth promoters (AGPs) is increasing and thus their use progressively limited. Essential oils stand as a natural alternative due to their beneficial effects in performance and gut health. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of EO-FIT® Swine, which contains a combination ofcarvacrol, thymol, cinnamaldehyde and clove, as an alternative to AGPs in piglet diets. A group of 240 piglets weaned at 28d were assigned to 3 treatments with 8 replicates each. T1 – Negative Control NC (basal diet), T2 – Positive control PC (NC + colistin at 120mg/kg + zinc oxide at 3000ppm), T3 – NC + EO-FIT® Swine at 0.5kg/ton. Animals were weighed at 28d, 42d and 70d of age. Average daily gain (ADG), averagedaily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were determined globally and for each period. Results were analyzed by one-way ANOVA using GLM procedure of SSPS v. 24.0.At the end of the trial (70d), animals from the positive control (PC) were 13.33% (23.8^akg) significantly heavier (P<0.0001) than those from the negative control (NC) (21.0^bkg) and EO-FIT® Swine treatment (5.71%, 22.2^bkg). Globally (from 28d to 70d) no differences were observed regarding ADFI. PC (T2) achieved better figures in ADG (P<0.0001) than the EO-FIT® Swine group (T3) and the NC (T1). Pigs treated with EO-FIT® Swine had a significantly better FCR (P=0.0006) than the NC and similar to the PC (1.58^a, 1.73^b and 1.50^a respectively). That is a consequence of a significantly higher ADG (P=0.0006) during the starter period (43d to 70d) for pigs treated with EO-FIT® Swine (416.9^ag/d) compared to the NC (375.3^bg/d), being statistically similar than the PC (442.2^ag/d). These results confirm the potential of EO-FIT® Swine as natural growth promoters because in some parameters was statistically similar than AGPs’ treatment.