Starting Calves on Amaferm Improves Performance in Transitioning Feedlot Diets

Alejandro Relling, Ph.D., Department of Animal Sciences, The Ohio State University (this article first appeared 12/14/16 in Ohio Farmer on-line, and will appear in the February 2017 issue of The Ohio Farmer magazine)

Weaning is a normal process in beef production, where the newly weaned calf is denied both its dam’s milk and social contact with her and other adults (Stookey et al., 1997).  Newly weaned calves are subjected to a numerous nutritional, behavioral, and immunological stressors immediately prior to and during the weaning, marketing, and transportation process, as well as upon arrival at the feedlot or backgrounding facility.  The result is a period of prolonged vocalization (bawling), which may irritate the respiratory tract and increase susceptibility to bacterial and viral challenges.  The exposure to new pathogenic organisms, and vaccines to which the calves must mount an immune response, both demand that calves be on an appropriate nutritional program in order to allow an adequate immune response.  There is often no social order immediately following weaning, and this lack of social order means that it can take calves several days to learn how to eat from a feed bunk or drink from a new water source.  Additionally, the physical characteristics of the feedlot receiving diet are often drier than pasture, or they may contain fermented feeds unfamiliar to the newly weaned calves.  Finally, the calves are often exhausted following weaning, being trucked, sorted and mixed with unfamiliar calves, loaded back onto another truck, and trucked to a feedlot or backgrounding facility.  During this time both feed and water may be scarce.  These periods of feed and water deprivation, which normally occur when cattle are weaned and transported by truck, cause changes in the rumen environment and eating patterns of calves.  These changes include a reduction in rumen solid and liquid volume, a reduction in average feed particle size and rumen dry matter percentage as rumination continues to occur in the absence of new feed, and a prolonged period of time to resume normal consumption levels following arrival (Fluharty et al., 1996).  Therefore, a main goal as nutritionist during the first few weeks following weaning is to improve water and feed intake. Consequently, the diet offered to calves must be both palatable and digestible in order to allow for proper animal health and performance.

The use of antibiotics in production livestock has become an issue that has found itself at the forefront of the industry.  As consumer concerns continue to grow about the use and misuse of antibiotics given to livestock, producers are now looking for alternative methods to increase production and performance of ruminant animals.  Recent research (personal communication, Dr. Ignacio Ipharraguerre, Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany) found that a prebiotic derived from Aspergillus oryzae fermentation (AO-Biotics, BioZyme Inc.) modulates permeability of the intestinal mucosa and appeared to stimulate the gut innate immune system. These observations along with the absence of signs of enteral disorders and impaired growth in the in vivo study suggest that AO-Biotics improves the absorptive and immune competence of the gut via a multifactorial mechanism. The apparent immune-stimulating action of AO-Biotics may safeguard the gut against inflammation and damage resulting from the potentially augmented entry of bacterial products (e.g., LPS) and dietary antigens (i.e., increased immune tolerance).

Recent research (Nickles and Relling, 2015) using a prebiotic derived from Aspergillus oryzae fermentation (Amaferm, BioZyme Inc.) found that the inclusion of 1 or 3.0 grams per head per day, in corn-silage based receiving diets containing Rumensin, and fed using a prescribed intake, there was a linear increase in ADG (P =0.04) during the first two weeks, with the control cattle gaining 0.62 lb/day, the 1.5 g/d Amaferm cattle gaining 0.73 lb/d, and the 3.0 g/d Amaferm cattle gaining 1.23 lb/d. The increases in ADG resulted in a linear increase in feed efficiency (P = 0.04) of 10% and 103% for the 1.5 g/d and 3.0 g/d treatments, respectively. The importance of these results is that even with a prescription intake program, in a diet containing Rumensin, there was a benefit of having Amaferm in the diet. There was no mortality during the first two weeks of this experiment, which partially may be attributed to the six week post-weaning diet adaptation at the farms of origin for these cattle, prior to feedlot arrival. The ability of the Amaferm treatments to result in greater ADG and G:F indicate that there was less metabolic stress, and greater diet digestibility during the first week in the feedlot. This is a critical period, as reductions in animal performance resulting in weight loss during week 1 are indicative of a negative energy and/or protein status, which makes an animal less capable of mounting an immune response against pathogenic bacterial and viral challenges. On the study conducted by Nickles and Relling (2016), there is no biological explanation for the linear improvement on performance due to Amaferm. However there are some studies that support changes produced Amaferm that might impact on performance. Amaferm has been shown to increase enzyme production by both cellulolytic and starch digesting bacteria, to increase the rate and extent of digestion, to increase the microbial protein yield on a variety of diets which provides essential protein to animals under stress during periods of reduced feed intake, as well as being shown to reduce the time that animals require to resume consumption during diet transition.  Amaferm helps to stabilize the rumen environment, by changing some bacteria growth rate (Beharka and Nagaraja, 1998).  Amaferm has also been shown to stimulate the growth of, and lactate uptake by Megasphaera elsdenii, the predominant lactate utilizing ruminal bacteria, potentially providing a means to reduce the economic losses associated with feeding high-concentrate diets that are caused by lactic acidosis.  (Waldrip and Martin, 1993).  Amaferm increased lactate uptake over 700% by the ruminal bacteria Selenomonas ruminantium in one study (Nisbet and Martin, 1990).  When digestibility is enhanced, and lactate in the rumen is decreased, then an improvement in feed efficiency may result. Therefore, Amaferm may be a useful tool when feedlot cattle are being transitioned from one diet to another, or are under any stress that may impact rumen stability or feed intake.

This research was not sponsored by BioZyme Incorporated.

Literature Cited
Beharka, A. A. and T. G. Nagaraja.  1998.  Effect of Aspergillus oryzae extract alone or in combination with antimicrobial compounds on ruminal bacteria.  J. Dairy Sci. 81:1591-1598.
Fluharty, F. L., S. C. Loerch, and B. A. Dehority.  1996.  Effects of feed and water deprivation on ruminal characteristics and microbial population of newly weaned and feedlot-adapted calves.  J. Anim. Sci. 74:465-474.
Nisbet, D.J. and S.A. Martin. 1990.  Effect of Dicarboxylic Acids and Aspergillus oryzae Fermentation Extract on Lactate Uptake by the Ruminal Bacterium Selenomonas Ruminatium.  Appl. and Envir. Microbiology 56:3515-3518.
Nickles, K. and A.E Relling. 2016. Effect of increasing amount of Amaferm on animal performance in receiving feedlot cattle. ASAS Midwest meeting 2017 submitted.
Stookey, J. M., K. S. Schwartzkopf-Genswein, C. S. Waltz, and J. M. Watts.  1997.  Effects of remote and contact weaning on behaviour and weight gain of beef calves.  J. Anim. Sci. 75(Suppl. 1):157.
Waldrip, H.M. and S.A. Martin. 1993.  Effects of Aspergillus oryzae Fermentation Extract and Other Factors on Lactate Utilization by the Ruminal Bacterium Megasphaera elsdenii.  J. Anim. Sci. 71:2770-2776).