Adding Garlic to Feed Benefits Pig Growth

Swiss researchers have found that adding a small amount of garlic to pig feed is greatly beneficial to the healthy growth of pigs. Garlic may be enough to play the role of antibiotics in the process of raising meat pigs. Martin • Jost of the Poultry Research Institute added ordinary antibiotics, garlic, or nothing at all to the feed of three groups of piglets.

The results showed that the use of garlic was better than not using garlic or using only antibiotics in reducing diarrhea and sudden death in piglets, but the shortcoming was that pigs fed with garlic as an additive gained weight more slowly, while the use of antibiotics did not have this effect. Even so, Jost still believes that an appropriate amount of garlic and other "organic" medicines will eventually replace antibiotics. In Europe, calls opposing the use of antibiotics are growing louder, because people worry that the use of antibiotics will prompt bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics.

Jost also pointed out in the test report that from the garlic-added pig feed he used, the smell and taste of garlic could no longer be detected, because he mashed the garlic very finely, and the enzyme that can produce the odor had already lost its activity.