Feed used in pig breeding has a high protein content which is normally provided by imported soy bean. This causes a high dependence of farmers on market price variations and environmental concerns due to the GHG emitted when producing and transporting soy bean. In addition, higher protein content in feed increases the excretion of green house gases and pollutants by animals, causing more impact on climate change and soil and water pollution. Adding feed-use amino acids may reduce the requirements of protein in feed and avoid many of these problems.

This research project assessed the environmental and economic impacts of adding aminoacides to pigs feed in 4 scenarios.

Results showed that incorporating 3 feed-use amino acids (L-lysine.HCL, L-threonine and DL-methionine) lowers both the protein needs of the animals and the emission and excretion of pollutants. This reduction is even higher when using more recently available feed-use amino acids (L-tryptophan and L-valine). Incorporating 5,55 kg of amino acids per ton of feed reduces feed costs by 4%. In addition this also diminishes the need to include soy meal by 127 kg per ton of feed, preventing deforestation and other environmental impacts in countries where the soy bean is produced while making farmers more resilient to prices fluctuations.