Antibiotics are fed to food animals at sub therapeutic levels for growth promotion. However, this practice leads to increases in antimicrobial resistance in the environment. Elimination or reduction in antibiotic use increases the potential for animal mortality as well as slower weight gain. In this paper we describe a study on the use of protease inhibitor as an alternative to antibiotics in swine production. Growth of 18 days old pigs for 1 month on protease inhibitor along with some antibiotics was significantly higher than the control pigs as well as the pigs on antibiotics alone. Furthermore, there was less antimicrobial resistance in the manure from pigs fed with protease inhibitor and antibiotics. We conclude that fine-tuning of protease inhibitor dose could significantly reduce antibiotic use in swine production as well as reduce antimicrobial resistance in the environment.