OLDS COLLEGE
First Canadian Study of FerAppease Releases Findings

FerAppease is being sold by Texas-based FERA Diagnostics and Biologicals Corp. as an inexpensive way to lower stress in cattle. The doses used in the study cost $4.27 per 10 millilitres, with a 300-millilitre bottle containing 30 such doses costing about $128.

It is a synthetic liquid that seeks to simulate the effects of a natural pheromone secreted by lactating or milk-producing cows, said Gellatly. "All mammals, including humans, have a pheromone called the maternal appeasing substance," she said.

"The bovine version is released near the mammary glands or udders in the cows, and so every time the calves go nursing, they can smell it. It helps each calf to identify their mother and it has a calming effect on the calves."

FerAppease is attracting attention from Canadian beef producers because U.S. studies have shown it can lower stress even for older cattle, said Gellatly. Scientists are examining its ability to improve everything from feed efficiency and weight gain to boosting immune systems against infections, she said.

It could also make it easier for beef producers to handle and transport their herds by making them more docile. The College's pilot study involved Angus-influence heifers averaging eight months old that were cared for under the guidelines of the Canadian Council on Animal Care.

The heifers were subjected to stress through practices that simulated those of the majority of cow-calf producers in Western Canada. It included abrupt weaning followed by transport in cattle trailers to simulate travel to feedlots or auction marts, said Gellatly. 

"I wanted to see how the FerAppease would affect the immune responses of those animals because we know once we put them in the feedlot at weaning time, they tend to get very sick due to multiple stressors."

The stress experienced by newly-weaned calves due to hauling conditions in Western Canada was simulated in the pilot study by separately moving the experimental and control groups into a pen and loading them into two separate livestock trailers. They were transported for an hour for a distance of about 84 kilometres, said Gellatly.

"The reason we put them in trailers is that normally in a commercial operation, the cow-calf producers wean the animals as soon as they are separated from their mothers. They go straight to the truck and they are sent to the auction mart."

Researchers applied doses of five millilitres of FerAppease to the muzzles of each of the 11 heifers in the experimental group, along with a further five millilitres to the nuchal area behind the ears for a total of 10 millilitres per animal. The heifers in the control group only received water.

The pilot study found that FerAppease influenced factors such as shrunk body weight, which is an important measure of weight loss during shipment to feedlots from cow-calf operations, said Gellatly. "There was specifically a statistical tendency toward significantly shrunk body weight of about three pounds for each of the water-treated heifers compared to the FerAppease-treated heifers."

The finding suggests greater differences might have been observed if more cattle had been involved in the study, said Gellatly. Heifers treated with FerAppease were also 22 pounds heavier at the end of the 28-day trial compared to the water-treated heifers, representing a difference of about 0.7 pounds per day of liveweight gain, she said. 

Gellatly plans to follow up with a larger study involving more cattle, as well as looking at the ability of FerAppease to improve things such as heifer pregnancy rates through artificial insemination that could help boost the profitability of cow-calf producers.

For more information on TACLP's research activities happening on the Olds College Smart Farm, visit oldscollege.ca/smartfarm.