The Beef Technical Sheet
Stress Occurrence in Cattle
All cattle, dairy, and beef in the northern hemisphere are descendants of the original ancient Auroch or wild ox. Instinctively, when a herd member would experience stress or was potentially ill, the rest of the herd would push the weaker animal to the back. This is where it would be the first target of the predators in the area allowing the rest of the healthy herd to survive. Slowly, this ancient animal adapted to hide its condition for approximately 21 days; allowing it to deal with its issue. This is a process very similar to human injections administered to the knee or shoulder. This allowed the animal to mask illness or injury up to the end of the third week.
The release of cortisol is a part of cattle’s natural biological adaptation, however, stress factors now extend beyond simple injury and illness. Articles recently published have expressed the industry’s concern and failure to identify sick animals in the first 21 days post stress, regardless of experience. The weaning, trucking, crowding, and weather fluctuations (hot, cold, snow, and rain) have become one of the biggest obstacles to finding sick animals in a timely manner due to this prolonged cortisol surge and it’s masking effect.
This surge is unavoidable, unfortunately, almost everything that we do in our modern cattle management can cause the surge.
How Our Solution Works
QFA from Applied Biotech is a blend of ingredients formulated to control the continued production of cortisol in challenged cattle. The continuous activity level and vocalization in QFA treated cattle returns to a more normal pattern by day two or three. This signals that QFA is doing its job to reduce circulating cortisol levels.
QFA provides a selected blend of bacteria that have extensive research showing their ability to help stabilize GI tract health in challenged animals. Each 0.1 lb feeding of QFA delivers 1.5 x 10 9 CFU to ensure that even animals not yet on full feed will receive a functional dose as they nose.
A steroid secreted by the adrenal gland in response to external stressors such as weaning, trucking, pen moves or extreme weather changes (heat stress / cold stress). Calves that vocalize and walk pen perimeters can be a sign of excessive prolonged cortisol.
Prolonged cortisol suppresses innate immune function and the ability of the calf to resist disease causing pathogens. It also inhibits your ability to observe clinical signs of disease.
The normal secretion lasts 10 – 12 hours. Stressors in the calf can trigger prolonged cortisol surge exposure for 21 days.
No, but you can effectively manage it. If QFA is administered properly, by the second or third day the animal’s behavior will calm and return to normal. This is the sign that the prolonged cortisol surge has been controlled.
QFA is a feed additive formulated to help stabilize the excessive cortisol production within the 21-day stress cycle. The ingredients have been scientifically formulated to help control the level and duration of this cortisol surge, improve innate immune response and increase the animal’s own soft tissue defense mechanisms.