Canadian cattle, swine and equine industries now have access to DeStress – an innovative nutritional therapy product developed to deliver a combination of animal welfare and productivity benefits.
DeStress is a formulation that targets these complementary advantages by applying the power of nutritional therapy to protect animals against the negative effects of stress related to transport and handling. It's a one-of-a-kind product developed by Canadian researchers and currently available in DeStress-Swine DeStress-Ruminants and DeStress-Equine versions.
Importantly, DeStress is drug free and based solely on natural nutritional ingredients, says Krisjan Jones, Marketing and Sales Lead for DeStress Nutritional Technology. "It's designed with the producer in mind and the needs of today's industries. DeStressis formulated to be highly palatable and easily fed. It is available in a crumble, ready-to-use form that is mixed with the normal ration. We're actively working to make the product available in water soluble form for use in water troughs, tanks and lines."
The negative effects of stress on livestock comprise a long list. It includes loss of live weight and carcass yield (shrink); degraded meat quality including dark cutting (cattle), color change (swine) and PSE meat (swine); degraded quality grade due to marbling loss (cattle); reduced tenderness due to dehydration; reduced growth performance (average daily gain); challenges to an animal's immune system; and degraded animal well-being.
However, livestock researchers including Schaefer and colleagues have made great strides in understanding the role and potential of nutrition to counteract and protect against these negative impacts.
The benefits identified are substantial, with clear improvements shown with both pre- and post-transport treatments, he says. Among key examples: for cattle, packer trials evaluating post transport treatment show 10% improvement in quality grade with the DeStress nutritional therapy.
