Studies continue to show the benefits of various feed ingredients when it comes to dealing with health challenges such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS). Jim Pettigrew and Dean Boyd were studying the impact of soy under a PRRS challenge when Ryan Dilger joined the University of Illinois animal science faculty in 2010. Together, they set out to understand why pigs that received soybean meal fared better in the face of a PRRS challenge than pigs fed a purified lysine supplement.

When Smith became a doctoral student in Dilger’s nutrition lab, she began conducting controlled wean-to-finish studies to isolate the effects or the reason soybeans were eliciting these benefits. 

Read more about their findings and watch the video interview here.