Mode of Action
When used as a food additive, ractopamine added to feed can be distributed via the blood to the muscle tissues, where it will bind to specific beta receptors in the muscle cell membranes. A cascade of events will then be initiated to increase protein synthesis, which results in increase in muscle fiber size. Ractopamine is known to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency and increase carcass leanness in finishing swine. Its use in finishing swine yields about three kilograms of additional lean pork and improves feed efficiency by 10%. In steers and heifers, ractopamine use increases hot carcass weight by about 5.5 kilograms and 5 kilograms, respectively.
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