Transfer Factor Enhances Immunity
Primer paste for newborns gets calves off to a good start.
February 6, 2025
Veterinarian Steven Slagle says a calf’s first month of life is the most important because it determines future performance. Today many producers and veterinarians are looking at alternatives to antimicrobials. A topic of interest is immune system enhancement and the role of transfer factors. If the immune status of the animals can be enhanced, disease is less likely to occur. Even if animals get sick, severity and duration of disease can be reduced; they recover more quickly and may not need antibiotics.
In 1999 Slagle began using a new product in his veterinary practice — a natural immune enhancer, deriving its efficacy from a protein produced by the immune system’s master immune cells (T lymphocytes). This protein is called transfer factor, and is also found in cow colostrum.
Transfer factors were discovered in 1949 after physicians noticed immunities could be transferred from one person to another by blood transfusion. Research was conducted during the 1950s through 1970s, then nearly halted because the world’s blood supply was becoming contaminated by HIV and hepatitis C virus, and the only known source of transfer factor at that time was blood. Use of transfer factor was limited, especially in veterinary medicine, because it was more expensive to produce than antibiotics.
The phenomenon of transfer factor was not actively pursued again until the late 1980s when it was discovered that cow colostrum contains significant amounts of this ingredient that stimulates both humoral and cellular immunity. We now know that transfer factor is one of the protein messengers released by antigen-sensitized lymphocytes (white blood cells).
“Transfer factors are the identifiers produced by the cow’s immune system through the years. That’s why her colostrum gets better each year,” Slagle says. “Everything she is exposed to or is vaccinated for makes transfer factors that remember those pathogens. When a newborn calf receives transfer factor in colostrum, this enables the calf to identify those pathogens, just as if he had been vaccinated for them — to identify those pathogens and start building his own immune library.”
Chicken eggs also contain transfer factors, and the combination from eggs and colostrum increases effectiveness by 185%. Transfer factors from cow colostrum and eggs are superior to and more functional than transfer factors from humans because animals are exposed to more kinds of bacteria, viruses and fungi.
Newborn immune primer
One of Slagle’s colleagues, Joseph Ramaeker, created and patented Livestock Stress Formula and Slagle began helping him do more research. Now Ramaekers Nutrition markets several immune-enhancing products including Newborn Immune Primer Paste.
“Dr. Ramaeker initially designed a powdered product we mixed with water and drenched the calves,” Slagle says. “We eventually produced a one-dose paste. We added all the essential things that make it work — electrolytes, probiotics, prebiotics, trace minerals and stress vitamins.
“The most important part is the transfer factor from colostrum. There are two parts of colostrum called transfer factors,” he continues. “One group works with the immune system, identifying pathogens and giving the immune system the energy to go after about 3,000 different pathogens. The other is called growth factor.”
The paste is given at birth to newborn calves. It can also be given to calves up to 2 months of age.
“After that we use the adult product instead — in a capsule to protect it from damage by rumen microflora,” Slagle says. “The newborn calf paste can be used as extra protection or treatment for disease when a calf is less than 2 months of age.”
“The transfer factor portion enables the calf to identify the pathogen causing the problem — within a couple hours.” — Steven Slagle
“The transfer factor portion enables the calf to identify the pathogen causing the problem — within a couple hours. By contrast, it takes the immune system about 10 days to do this if the calf were not vaccinated against that particular organism or not exposed to it at birth,” he says.
“A calf would have to drink 8 gallons of colostrum to get the same amount of immune enhancement,” Slagle says. Slagle encourages producers unsure about the product to try it on half their calves and compare performance to see the difference.
“At weaning these calves are generally at least 30 pounds heavier than the others,” he says. “Plus, maybe it saved some calves or kept some from getting sick. That saves money, labor and antibiotics.”
Editor's note: Heather Smith Thomas is a freelance writer and cattlewoman from Salmon, Idaho. [Lead photo by Shauna Hermel.]
Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA, Vol. 17, No. 2-A
Topics: Health , Management
Publication: Angus Beef Bulletin
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