ABSTRACT
In relation to pig production, only BA and GH (also called somatotropin or ST) are used commercially, because anabolic steroids appear to have reduced efficacy in pigs compared to ruminants (Heitzman 1979). Use of all growth promoters in commercial livestock production was banned across the European Union in 1988. However, some growth promoters are licenced (i.e. legal) for use in livestock across other parts of the world, including North and South Americas, Southern Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand and some parts of Asia. For example, the United States allows the use of the BA, ractopamine, for pig production and China allows the use of GH (recombinant porcine GH, rpGH), but not BA, while Australia and New Zealand allow the use of both. There is a lack of information on the commercial use of growth promoters in some parts of the world though.
