Scientists with the United States Department of Agriculture think they
have figured out how to use vitamin E to stop livestock stress from
turning into disease.
USDA researcher Ted Elsasser is studying new ways to measure stress and
use that information to treat animals.
He is studying early warning signs and has found that cell proteins
bound to nitrates in the blood may be an early chemical indicator that
an animal is having a problem.
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Research is ongoing to find specific nitrated proteins and connect them
with specific types of stress.
Nitrification can be caused by stressful events such as weaning,
transporting, movement to new herds and feed changes.
The process begins when an amino acid called arginine, which is
necessary and present in animal diets, is carried into the body’s
cells, starting a chemical reaction that ends with the nitrification of
cell protein.
This causes the cell to change its behaviour, often making it
impossible to perform its normal functions, including disease defense.
Elsasser has found that antioxidants in the blood stream could reduce
the amount of nitrated proteins.
Vitamin E is a common antioxidant used by humans to rid the body of
cancer-causing free radical molecules. It also prevents formation of
nitrated proteins.
Researchers at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service lab in Beltsville,
Maryland, exposed 12 calves to co-endotoxin, a toxin derived from
bacterial cell walls that causes animal immune systems to react as if
they were infected.
Six calves were pretreated with vitamin E and six weren’t.
Four calves in a control group were given neither the toxin nor vitamin
E.
Researchers then measured the levels of a naturally occurring hormone
that is necessary for healthy, rapid growth. Infections in young
animals stop production of this hormone.
The uninfected calves had high levels, while infected, untreated calves
had low levels and became ill from exposure to the toxin.
The calves pretreated with vitamin E had “significantly” higher levels
of the hormone than those that were untreated, and recovered from the
simulated infection more quickly than the untreated, infected group.
The scientists concluded that pretreating animals with vitamin E may
reduce the amount of antibiotics needed to treat disease. Vitamin E
pretreatments should also result in higher daily rates of gain in
animals that are responding to the stress of illness or confinement.
The USDA researchers are examining feeding rates to determine a
recommended dosage and the level of protection it provides livestock.
George Bubenik, an animal researcher at the University of Guelph in
Ontario studies stress and its relationship to growth. He thinks
another antioxidant, the hormone melatonin, may also play a role in
treating livestock before stress opens the door to infection.
He and his colleagues are looking for funding for a study into how
melatonin affects pigs.
They feel the hormone helps animals relax and creates chemical changes
in their digestive systems.
“It looks from our initial inquiries that animals might come to market
five percent faster,” Bubenik said.
“That means a lot to the farmer who pays for that five percent of time
in the barn.”
