The combination of benzoic acid and nature identical flavorings improve sow and piglet performance as well as reduce pathogen exposure in feed

Feed biosecurity has been a topic of interest for the veterinary, nutrition and production segments of the swine industry for over a decade. The combination of benzoic acid and nature-identical flavorings (VVC) has proven to be beneficial in pig feed by reducing clinical expression of disease when pigs were challenged with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), Senecavirus A (SVA) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) in Dr Scott Dee’s ice-block challenge model,1 and by reducing the African swine fever virus (ASFV) contamination of feed in an invitro study in China.2 Most products used for feed mitigation are solely used for that purpose and have few, if any, beneficial effects reported on performance in the absence of feed pathogens, with some even negatively impacting animals. This combination of acid and flavorings has proven to be beneficial for sows and pigs. There is also new in-vitro data that confirms the impact of this combination in the face of PRRSV, PEDV and an ASFV surrogate.