Our goal was to demonstrate to the swine industry the importance of soybean meal (SBM) derived amino acids in resolving health challenges and optimizing amino acid digestibility and performance in health challenged pigs. Our hypothesis was that increasing the inclusion rate of SBM over synthetic amino acids in the diets of grow-finish pigs that face of health challenges such as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus (PRRSV) or of reduced health status, will improve grower pig performance and lean tissue accretion. We further hypothesize that compared to healthy pigs, the amino acid requirements of health challenged pigs are re-prioritized and that the extra crude protein and idea amino acid profile of SBM provides a better array of amino acids to meet this requirement and this in turn reduces endogenous losses of amino acids. To demonstrate the importance of SBM in grow-finish pig diets in pigs that face inevitable health challenges (i.e. viral and/or bacterial), two experimental approaches were conducted.