Volume 10, No. 2
BOVINE SERUM PRODUCTS WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE
By: Russ Schnepper, DVM
Mad Cow Disease and the US Government's desire to please Japan has caused a ruling that eliminates Bovine blood products from ruminant feeds. This article is based upon my own personal opinions and interpretation of the rules and the situations as I see them.
It will be illegal to feed any ruminant product back to a ruminant. This includes blood products. I think this sends a wrong message to the general public. It implies prions may be in blood. Isn''t there blood in Japanese steaks? I hope some common sense can prevail. But it appears bovine serum products will not be used in calf feed. What really bothers me is, the milk usually contains the same components as the blood. Are they going to decide milk is a problem. The theory that milk is not a problem is partially based upon women in the cannibalistic tribes in New Guinea. These tribes eat the brain of the dead elders, in the tribe, in order to pass the elder''s wisdom on to the next generation. There have been several women that were nursing babies and the women had clinical signs of the prion disease, but did not pass it on to their babies.
There are a many bovine serum products: Lifeline, Secure, Gammulin, Plasmagic, Quantum Leap Scour Product, plasma containing milk replacers, to name a few. It is my understanding these products will be gone when current inventory is exhausted.
American Protein Corporation has approximately half of their business in these products. They also work with porcine blood products. So I would think they would probably put swine blood in these in place of bovine. There would have to be testing, etc., and some time involved in bringing new products to market. In the mean time we have to live without them.
There are other alternatives. The egg products - from vaccinated chickens may help. But my experience with them is they have a narrow spectrum of activity. Immunoboost is also a very good alternative. The tests used to get the Immunoboost licensed involved tubing colostrum deprived calves at 6 hours of age with a hot strain of K99 E. coli. They waited until the calf scoured, which was 20 hours after exposure, and then injected 1 ml of Immunoboost. No other treatment was given, no antibiotics, no electrolytes. The calves were merely fed milk. 90% of the Immunoboost calves lived while 100% of the control calves died. So they have a claim for K99 E. coli. My personal experience is Immunoboost is effective against salmonella, rota and corona virus as well as the E. coli. I have not been successful using Immunoboost to treat clostridial infections nor cryptosporidiosis. Immunoboost makes the immune system fire up and produce interferon as well as stimulate production of all the immune blood cells. I have found the effect of the Immunoboost persists for seven days. The Immunoboost can be repeated as needed.
I have changed some of my calf startup programs when using the Immunoboost. If giving Immunoboost on day one in the barn I do not give the modified live virus vaccine at that time. However, if a vaccine is given at the same time as the Immunoboost, the immune response is markedly enhanced. A modified live could be given at day 8. However, do not vaccinate the calf between two and five weeks of age. Vaccination at this time can be detrimental. Remember, the immune system requires Selenium and Vitamin E to function properly.
Contact information for ordering information and questions about our products:
Schnepper International, Inc.
3162 County B, Platteville, WI 53818
608-348-6141, Fax: 608-348-6146
www.calfdoctor.com email: rschnep@mhtc.net