Swine Nutrition Blackbelt #13 - Dr. Tsungcheng Tsai: What other options are out there to reduce the prevalence of E. coli in the nursery?

Since 2019 some farms have been struggling with E.coli infections in nursery pigs that have been fairly resistant to antibiotic treatment. This has led some people, like our guest today, to look into alternative options for treatment and prevention. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Tsungcheng Tsai about his lab group studying the effects of lactylate and Bacillus subtilis on pig performance while measuring the effects on gut microbiome E. coli prevalence. Listen to find out the results!

Meet the guest: Dr. Tsungcheng Tsai has been a program associate for the University of Arkansas since he graduated with his Ph.D. in Animal Sciences from the University of Georgia in 2010. Tsai’s interests and expertise have helped researchers within his department to develop assays to further investigate mechanisms that might be involved in the enhancement of swine growth performance, as well as establishing a peripheral blood mono-nucleus cell isolation technique in swine that helped examine immunological differences in various swine. Since 2017, Tsai has co-authored 15 articles published in peer reviewed journals and presented more than 30 abstracts of paper at regional meetings between 2015 and 2019, helping gain visibility for  programs within the Animal Science Department.