URBANA, Ill. – Recent regulatory restrictions around antibiotic use in livestock challenge the feed industry, but research from the University of Illinois shows a probiotic product – Clostridium butyricum – can achieve the same growth-promoting results as antibiotics.

“Not being able to use antibiotics, these probiotics or direct-fed-microbials (DFMs) are being used more and more. We have worked with DFMs for the last 10 years and have consistently observed increased growth performance in pigs,” says Hans H. Stein, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at U of I and co-author of the study. (Read more...)