Effects of Aromax Dry in Calves

• Location of trial: China, Province of Xinjiang
• Type of trial: Farm Trial
• Experimented animals: Calves (age: 3-60 days of life) from different breeds, with majority of >95% belonging to Holstein breed.
• Goal of this trial: Assessing the effect of the XVET product Aromax Dry on calves
• Date of this trial: October 2021 until March 2022

Product Information: Aromax Dry is a unique natural botanical product specifically designed for the support of respiratory and digestive health of livestock animals. The product has a high content of the natural essential oils from Eucalyptus, Mint and Thyme as main ingredients, plus pure L-menthol. It can be positioned for the enhancement of appetite of animals at all ages, improvement of FCR, promotes a beneficial gut microbiome, and supports the respiratory as well as the digestive tract of young calves in times of challenges during their rearing phase (low temperatures, high relative humidity…).

Hypothesis:
It was hypothesized that applying Aromax Dry via milk replacer and creep feeding to young calves can support the digestive and respiratory health of the animals and can reduce the incidence of diarrhea, cough and dyspnea.

Feeding Program:
In this farm trial, the calves of the Control and Test group received the same nutritional program and were kept under the same housing conditions. The feeding plan for the Test group included Aromax Dry and was as following:
• Newborn calves: 15-20 g/head/day added into milk, fed for 10 consecutive days
• Calves older than 20 days: 30-40 g/head/day added to the feed, fed for 10 consecutive days
• Cattle older than 30 days: 50 g/head/day added to the feed, fed for 10 consecutive days
• As it was a farm where it was not possible to keep two groups at the same time, statistical data from animals seen as Control group were obtained from the calves raised before the Aromax Dry feeding group started.

Additional note: All sick calves were isolated from their individual group, kept in an isolation shed and treated with Tyramectin (intramuscular injection). The infectious stable underwent a disinfection program to reduce pathogenic pressure from the air and stable environment.

Results:
From October 2021 to December 2021, before the application of Aromax Dry started, the total number of calves in this farm with symptoms of respiratory impairments and intestinal disorders was determined to be 78 calves: which means the incidence rate in the group seen as Control reached 36.45% ( See Table below). The age of the onset of all kind of symptoms ranged from 3 to 60 days of age. During the onset of illness, the calves showed signs of diarrhea, elevated body temperature, coughing, dyspnea, ataxia, low-hanging heads and ears, and individual calves had severe protruding eyes and arched back.

Necropsy of dying calves found that the meninges were severely purulent, the lungs had hemorrhages with fleshy changes, and the renal pelvis showed signs of hemorrhages. Some dead calves had severe purulent symptoms in their lungs.

Conclusion:
According to the comparison between the data in the Table and the actual situation of the calf field, we experienced that with the application of Aromax Dry, the overall morbidity decreased relatively significantly. At the same time, it can be seen in the pictures (all the pictures below were taken from the actual pasture), that the overall condition of the calves (feeding status, behavior, overall appearance) had greatly improved, especially for the incidence of infectious diseases relevant for calf production.

Aromax Dry, together with established measures of improved farm hygiene management can be a good prevention program to deal with digestive and respiratory diseases in the rearing of young calves.

Final Remark:
In this farm trial, a general lower incidence rate of diseases in the group using Aromax Dry was experienced. It is a good result to show the power of Aromax Dry for supporting the prevention of digestive and respiratory disorders.
Nevertheless, it has to be noted that Aromax Dry is not a medication, but should rather be seen as part of a supportive concept in order to prevent the appearance of digestive and respiratory disorders in calves.
Further, as the market prices of young calves at the time of the trial was around 450~800 USD, Aromax Dry shows a valuable ROI.

Addendum: The planning, performance and analysis of university and field trials is a long, expensive and complicated process. Here in XVET, we promote field trials, and we want to generate data for and together with our customers to see the effect of the XVET products on farms all around the world under their respective circumstances in each of these countries.

For further details, please contact us via technical@xvetgermany.com.