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  Discussion on The new EPIC treatment for foals
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Posted on Wednesday, Mar 8, 2000 - 11:37 am:

I work on a very large thoroughbred breeding farm. We foal anywhere from sixty to one hundred mares, so foal diseases are of great concern to us. Foal diarrhea constantly affects us and any new treatment is a big help in battling the problem. My question is if you had heard of the treatment called EPIC now on the market and how successful has it been in preventing foal diarrhea. Any side effects? Any problems in giving vegetable oil to neonates? It is fairly expensive, so we really need to know if it is worth charging our owners the money to treat every foal born on our farm.
Sincerely, Teri (ass't mgr. to Sharon)

Posted on Thursday, Mar 9, 2000 - 10:41 am:

Is this the rotaviral immunization product? I may have more success with the generic description of what is in it, rather than the product name.
DrO

Posted on Friday, Mar 10, 2000 - 12:42 pm:

EPIC is the treatment that contains egg proteins in a pasteurized spray dried whole egg form that you are supposed to mix with vegetable oil to give immediately after birth and 6-8 hours later. It is supposed to increase IgG levels and help coat the cilia of the intestines. It is mostly marketed as a preventative for foal scours. The company that makes it is Vetrepharm. Their number is 1-888-549-4503. They have told us that it is being used extensively in KY and FL (they have sold over 5,000 doses). We hate trying new products on our owners' horses unless we are sure they don't do any harm and are worth our time and their money. We are looking for vets who can research this product a little better and give us an answer as to how safe and effective this product is. Please let us know if you can research this product and how you feel about it.
Teri

Posted on Friday, Mar 10, 2000 - 7:40 pm:

Well let me mosey on over to the ice box, get a refreshment, and see what I can come up with. Egg protein, vegetable oil, diarrhea, seems like I heard something, no, no that was tofu and salamander larvae for foal pneumonia, yet there is something in the back of my mind....Let me look in the new products sections of the last few horse-vet rags I've got:

Hmmmmmmm..... Theres HEROIC a new herbal-transcendental treatment guaranteed to make tha horse that shies on the trail as brave as Hercules. Hmmmmm...there's MYTHical a new vitamin mineral treatment guaranteed to take that 25 year old nag and turn it into a 5 year old endurance champion. Hmmmm........there's MIRACLE, guaranteed to take the spavinist, ringyist boned, navicular, hee-haw looking of a horse and make him the spitting image of SECRETARIAT.. geezzz, that is good stuff. Oh,Oh!!! It even has a written guarantee: If it works it's a MIRACLE. Good enough for me but not what I am looking for... Hmmmmmmm.....No no epic here. Ooooooooooo..look at this a electronic-magneto-ultrasounic-laser machine named LEGENDARY. Man, it comes with a free coupon book so you can call the horse telepathist at Extrasensory Equine to tell you where to put it! With the way they are making progress I will be out of a job soon, sure glad I got this internet thing to fall back on. Hmmmm....but still no EPIC.

Well let's see what the Vetrepharm product literature states.......works because horses were once raised by chickens and they are now deficient in important egg.....oh geez I don't believe that,.....do you believe that? Maybe I will call my phylogeny teacher tomorrow.

Well let's put on our scientist cap, mine reads, "Go Dogs!" and crank up the databases see what surfaces. Going to the biggest, bawdiest, ooops I mean baddest, database in the whole wide internet, and linking the search to the four databases on my computer ought to get us some smoke. For a laugh let's try "EPIC" and "Horse".........ever hear a 16mg Sound Blaster Pro sound card laugh, it has a mean sound to it. Ok, Ok, let's try "egg protein", and "horse"............730 pages returned with 33,987 references, Oh lawsy, I'll need a little more refreshment here, dang again, my freezy mug has gotten warm....let's see here:

Asao T, et al. [See Related Articles] Interaction of second and third domains of Japanese quail ovomucoid with ten mammalian trypsins. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1998 Sep 8;1387(1-2):415-21. PMID: 9748658; UI: 98422338.
Nope.

Lisiecki P, et al. [See Related Articles] [Animal systemic iron sources utilized in vitro by staphylococci]. Med Dosw Mikrobiol. 1997;49(1-2):45-53. Polish. PMID: 9411071; UI: 98009427.
Nope...

Runnels HA, et al. [See Related Articles] Intact proteins can bind to class II histocompatibility molecules with high affinity. Mol Immunol. 1997 Apr;34(6):471-80. PMID: 9307063; UI: 97450622.
Nope....dag nab it I put horse in, can't that thing read?

Larson JL, et al. [See Related Articles] Sperm from a variety of mammalian species express beta1,4-galactosyltransferase on their surface. Biol Reprod. 1997 Aug;57(2):442-53. PMID: 9241062; UI: 97383071.
Nope............

Richards MP, et al. [See Related Articles] Metalloprotein analysis by capillary isoelectric focusing. J Chromatogr B Biomed Sci App. 1997 Mar 7;690(1-2):43-54. PMID: 9106028; UI: 97259929.
Double Nope........

Alcantara J, et al. [See Related Articles] Transferrin binding protein two interacts with both the N-lobe and C-lobe of ovotransferrin. Microb Pathog. 1996 Feb;20(2):73-85. PMID: 8722096; UI: 96362192.
Triple Nope.....

Kirkpatrick JF, et al. [See Related Articles] Applications of pig zona pellucida immunocontraception to wildlife fertility control. J Reprod Fertil Suppl. 1996;50:183-9. PMID: 8984182; UI: 97105523.
Wildlife fertility control (!) we are getting no where reallll slow, let's try something else........

Let's take "horse" out and stick "diarrhea" in there...... geeeeeehaw!, there are two references that seem to apply:

Arch Tierernahr 1997;50(4):369-80
[Systemic availability of bovine immunoglobulin G and chicken immunoglobulin Y after feeding colostrum and whole egg powder to newborn calves].[Article in German]

Erhard MH, Gobel E, Lewan B, Losch U, Stangassinger M
Institut fur Physiologie, Physiologische Chemie und Tierernahrung, Tierarztlichen Fakultat, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen, Germany.

In connection with a study on the prophylaxis of infectious diarrhea with specific egg yolk antibodies, the systemic availability of colostral bovine immunoglobulin G (bIgG) and chicken immunoglobulin Y (IgY) after feeding egg powder was investigated on 26 newborn calves from 23 different farms. Blood was sampled daily and at the same day time from these calves in the first 14 days of life. During the feeding of colostrum, the mean bIgG concentration was highest at day 1 post natum with a value of 9.3 mg/ml serum. Thereafter, the mean bIgG level was reduced continuously to a significant lower concentration of 4.9 mg/ml serum at day 12 post natum and remained nearly constant at 5.2 mg/ml till to the end of the observation period. Total protein concentrations in the serum did not change and plateaued at a mean value of 56.2 mg/ml (SD 11.2). The number of colostrum meals had no significant effect on the mean bIgG concentrations during that period. The individual variation of bIgG concentrations was very high on every day of the sampling period. The mean coefficient of variation was at 52.1 % (SD 5.7). After having described the individual bIgG concentration curves mathematically with a regression curve, two groups with significantly different bIgG elimination constants (k) could be obtained. Thus in one group (n = 10) with k-values of -0.02, a mean half time of 68.5 days (SD 36.7) could be calculated, possibly because these calves started earlier with their endogenous bIgG production. Additionally, to 18 of these calves 20 g egg powder with an IgY concentration of 15 mg/g was fed up to day 14. Calves had a maximal mean IgY concentration of 1.9 micrograms/ml serum if egg powder feeding started already during the first 12 hours of life. Starting at a later time resulted in a significant reduction of IgY levels. For example, the mean initial IgY concentration DrOpped to 0.035 micrograms/ml serum after having had the first egg powder application between 25 and 48 hours post natum. Using the individual IgY elimination constant derived from a regression analysis (r2 = 0.84) of the IgY concentration curve, a mean IgY half time of 5.0 days (SD 2.5) could be calculated. To prevent the absorption of heterologous antibodies and consecutively, also to prevent a possible systemic effect, egg powder for prophylactic purposes in newborn calves should be fed after the first 24, better 48 hour, post natum. Most important for the prophylactic effect of specific antibodies on infectious diarrhea is not their systemic but their high local intestinal availability.

Effect of oral egg antibody in experimental F18+ Escherichia coli infection in weaned pigs.
Yokoyama H, Hashi T, Umeda K, Icatlo FC Jr, Kuroki M, Ikemori Y, Kodama Y
GHEN Corporation, Immunology Research Institute, Gifu City, Japan.

The protection conferred by egg antibody specific for F18-fimbriae against infection with F18+ Escherichia coli was studied in controlled passive immunization trials involving weaned pigs. Parameters of protection consisted of body weight gain, frequency and severity of diarrhea and recovery of the challenge strain of F18+ E. coli. Weaned pigs at four weeks of age were challenge exposed once daily for three days by oral inoculation with 10(11) cfu of virulent F18+ E. coli followed by daily administration of antibody supplemented feed for 9 days starting from the first challenge day 0. Results showed a dose-dependent response to antibody treatment. The group of pigs given 1:50 titer of antibody in feed had less frequency of diarrhea (P < 0.01-0.05), higher rate of gain (P < 0.01) and lower isolation rate of challenge strain in rectal and intestinal swabs (P < 0.01) compared to non-treated control. In the same manner, the anti-F18 antibody significantly reduced adherence of F18+ E. coli to pig intestinal epithelial cells in vitro (P < 0.01). Results suggest that egg antibodies specific for the F18 fimbriae is a suitable immunotherapeutic agent for pigs infected with F18+ E. coli and that pigs can be protected from overt clinical disease and the subsequent reduced performance arising from infection with this pathogen.

Should I dare try reinserting "horse" in the search? Why not.......more laughter...How about "foal", after all the computer don't know a foal is a horse...........only response "I do to know a foal is a horse, you moron" and by the way: no returns.

Well there you have two references on the effects of powdered egg and something called "egg antibody specific for F18-fimbriae" in calves and pigs. I don't know, there seems to be some logic behind the product but a bit short on published proof in refereed journals. I notice no expensive ingredients listed in the paper above just powdered egg. I think I call Extrasensory Equine see what they have to say, i'll just bet they have a thought after I give'em my credit card number but hey they got to make a living too. Sure hope Vetpharm has a sense of humor!
DrO

Posted on Friday, Mar 10, 2000 - 7:55 pm:

I'm so glad you do - that was hysterical!
Ann

Posted on Saturday, Mar 11, 2000 - 1:52 pm:

Oh dear oh dear, I don't know if this was because you were irritated or amused by the powdered egg, but it was very funny and very clever.
Thank you,
Alexa

Posted on Saturday, Mar 11, 2000 - 10:47 pm:

Good one Dr. O!!!
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