ST. JOSEPH, Mo., May 29, 2007 - AgriLabs has introduced Vita Charge(r) and Vita Charge Appetite Plus, a family of all-natural products proven to quickly increase dry matter intake and improve performance during times of stress. Vita Charge-brand products combine Amaferm(r) – a proprietary Aspergillus oryzae (a type of fungi) fermentation product - with vitamins and minerals, and use a unique mode of action to deliver higher yields of energy and protein from feed. Available in six formulations for convenient individual-animal dosing, Vita Charge maintains effectiveness when used in conjunction with antibiotics.
"Getting beef and dairy cattle back on feed quickly after periods of stress is the best way to maintain health and welfare, and encourage top performance," says David Zehendner, business unit manager, AgriLabs. "Administering Vita Charge with Amaferm individually ensures that each animal receives the right dose, offering an important boost during times of low feed intake. For years, producers have benefited by feeding Amaferm; now we are excited to be working with BioZyme Inc. (the manufacturer of Amaferm) to exclusively market Vita Charge products, giving producers more flexibility than ever before when caring for their cattle."
Helping Cope with Stress
Shipping, weaning, calving and hot weather all can create stress during the normal course of an animal's life. Often these periods of stress are accompanied by lower intakes of feed and water, which, in turn, significantly decrease the rumen's fermentation processes and capacity.
Vita Charge blends the digestive aid, Amaferm, with essential vitamins, trace minerals and macro minerals to deliver rapid, measurable improvement in dry matter intake, average daily gain and other performance measures.
"Whether producers prefer a drench, gelcap, paste or other formulation when administering animal-health products to individual animals, the Vita Charge product family provides choices for easy dosing control as well as the assurance that the product gets into the rumen," says Zehendner. "This means that herd managers can choose the best time and place for administering Vita Charge - such as administering via drench when processing incoming cattle, giving gelcaps to cows at calving or adding dispersible powder to milk replacer for calves.
Backed by Research and Real-world Results
For years, leading universities and researchers have conducted in-vitro and in-vivo studies looking at Amaferm, its mode of action and performance results in animals. With more than 80 peer-reviewed studies published to date, Amaferm (the active ingredient in Vita Charge) is the most-researched direct-fed microbial on the market.
For example, when looking at groups of English-crossbred steers averaging 700 pounds, Kansas State University found that cattle receiving Amaferm after arrival were eating 4.4 percent more dry matter by Day 5 and 17.8 percent more dry matter by Day 10. University of Illinois research with Holstein steers given Amaferm showed an improvement of 11.6 percent in feed efficiency during the first 15 days.
In dairy cows, administering Amaferm to early-lactation cows enabled them to achieve peak dry matter intake four weeks earlier, according to research published in the Journal of Dairy Science. Six additional published studies evaluated lactating cows exposed to heat stress, demonstrating that Amaferm improved rumen efficiency, dry matter intake and water intake, and decreased rectal temperature, while increasing milk production by 6.9 percent.
"In addition to research in real-world conditions, laboratory studies have established an understanding of what makes Vita Charge with Amaferm different from other direct-fed microbials," says Dr. Howard Jensen, director of technical services for BioZyme Inc. "Work at Kansas State looked at the growth rate of naturally occurring ruminal digestive bacteria, whose growth ordinarily is slowed by antibiotics. It showed that Amaferm increased rumen bacteria's growth rate in the presence of antibiotics. This change in rumen flora helps improve digestion and average daily gain, which contributes to immune response and antibiotic effectiveness, and better overall animal health."
Details about these studies, and additional research conducted in beef and dairy cattle of all ages, are available from AgriLabs representatives.
Unique Mode of Action
Key to the effectiveness of all-natural Vita Charge is Amaferm, a proprietary, dried A. oryzae fermentation product. Anaerobic fungi are the most recently recognized group of naturally occurring rumen microorganisms. They help with fiber digestion by breaking open plant-cell walls, both physically and enzymatically, and are especially good at attacking large, complex fragments of cellulose and hemicellulose.
Amaferm accelerates the life cycle of anaerobic fungi, and increases their size and levels of enzymatic secretion. In addition, Amaferm delivers up to a 300 percent increase in fiber-digesting rumen bacteria by directly stimulating both growth rate and multiplication.
"This stimulation of rumen microorganisms helps cattle get more energy and protein from the feeds they eat," says Jensen. "Whether using Vita Charge with Amaferm in conventional production systems or natural programs, beef producers can move cattle to hotter rations sooner, improving effective days on feed. Dairy producers can improve performance during the transition period and hot weather, and get baby calves off to a good start."
Now Available from AgriLabs
Vita Charge and Vita Charge Appetite Plus are available exclusively from AgriLabs in convenient drench, bolus, gelcap, paste, dispersible-powder and premix-stress-pellet formulations. Typically, Vita Charge provides at least a 5:1 return on investment.
For more information about the Vita Charge family of products, visit www.AgriLabs.com, call this toll-free number: (800) 542-8916 or contact your local AgriLabs representative.
The Vita Charge and Vita Charge Appetite Plus family of all-natural, direct-fed microbials is proven to quickly increase dry matter intake and average daily gain during times of stress. They combine Amaferm, a proprietary, dried A. oryzae fermentation product, with vitamins and minerals to deliver higher yields of energy and protein from feed, even in the presence of antibiotics. Individual administration of Vita Charge upon arrival, at weaning, and during transition or other times of stress conveniently gets cattle off to a fast start.
AgriLabs is an animal-health sales-and-marketing organization with distribution throughout the United States. The company's partnership structure and philosophy, together with a commitment to expeditious product development, provide a smooth, efficient system for manufacturers to transfer technology from research laboratories to the marketplace. Through technology transfer and cooperative development agreements, AgriLabs has introduced a number of state-of-the-art products to the beef and dairy industries.