ImmuGuard - Immune Stimulant

ImmuGuard is a source of biologically active immunoglucan and oligosaccharides formulated together to promote a healthy intestinal tract and active immune system to improve animal well being and performance.

Intestinal Microflora

The intestinal tract of animals is the site of nutrient digestion and absorption. It is also the site for colonisation by both beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms. The microbial balance determines the host animal’s health status and production efficiency.

In healthy animals, lactobacilli dominate the intestine and successfully suppress pathogenic activity. Changes in this balance of microbial composition often occur and represent a major cause of digestive disturbance and the overall health and productivity of the animal. In addition, therapeutic or preventative treatment of calves with antibiotics or other drugs may remove all the microbes in the intestine and create a temporarily sterile digestive tract. Animals are extremely vulnerable to invasion by pathogenic organisms immediately after such therapeutic treatment.

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ImmuGuard has been developed to improve the health status of the animal by both promoting a beneficial microflora in the gut and by enhancing the animal’s immune response to better deal with challenges.

Immunoglucans

The immunoglucan in ImmuGuard is produced by extracting a purified type of beta glucan from the wall of yeast cells. This material acts as a specific stimulator of the immune system. This results in greater activity of white blood cells to destroy pathogens and also to produce compounds such as peroxide and nitric oxide which inhibit pathogen development.

This property of immunoglucans is only evident when the material is at least 80% pure and has been processed in a particular was to protect it’s biological activity. Most commercially available beta glucans do meet this specification.

Immunoglucan

Oligosaccharides

Oligosaccharides are natural sugar complexes which cannot be metabolised by the digestive enzymes of monogastric animals. They serve as substrates for the growth of specific beneficial bacteria in the lower gut and help to prevent the establishment of pathogens on the intestinal mucosa. Oligosaccharides can be produced from extracts of some vegetables including those from bananas, artichokes, cereals, certain microbial fermentation processes, or by carbohydrate synthesis.

Mannan Oligosaccharides (MOS)
Mannan oligosaccharides occur naturally in the cell walls of microorganisms such as yeasts and plants.Mannan oligosaccharides are successfully used in production animals as an aid to combating stress- dependent ailments that cause an imbalance in beneficial gut microflora. MOS exists in different forms but are all composed of mannose sugars linked by glycoside bonds:

alpha-(1,6) glycoside bonds
alpha-(1,2) glycoside bonds
alpha-(1,3) glycoside bonds
beta-(1,3) glycoside bonds

Oligosaccharides

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS)
Fructooligosaccharides occur naturally in large concentrations in the chicory plant which is widely grown in Europe. FOS is extracted from the chicory plant by a hot water extraction of the macerated root which is then spray dried to produce the powdered form that is used in ImmuGuard. During the liquid phase, the mixture is treated with specific enzymes to ensure that the desired chain lengths of oligosaccahride that are the most effective in the animal are achieved in the final product.

The chain length is known as the degrees of polymerisation. Too few means the FOS will be unstable and not make it to the target section of the intestine. Too many and the FOS may not be sufficiently degraded in the intestine to achieve stimulation of the beneficial bacteria. The FOS used in ImmuGuard has been formulated to contain mostly medium and long length chains of oligosaccharides to ensure optimum utilisation in the intestinal tract of the target animal.

Both mannan and fructan oligosaccharides can be successfully used in animal production as an aid to combating stress-dependent ailments that cause an imbalance in the beneficial gut microflora.

MOS and FOS are principally used as an energy source by lactic acid producing bacteria, thereby stimulating their growth. Beneficial bacterial populations that are positively stimulated by include:

Bifidobacterium longum
Bifidobacterium pullorum
Lactobacillus casei
Lactobacillus acidophilus
Lactobacillus delbreukii
Enterococcus spp

Bifdobacterium

This results in a more stable intestinal microflora and optimizes nutrient absorption and feed conversion.

Pathogenic bacteria cannot degrade MOS or FOS and therefore cannot use them as an energy source. Feeding ImmuGuard tends to suppress the activity of important pathogenic populations such as:

Escherichia coli
Salmonella pullorum
Salmonella typhimurium
Clostridium botulinum
Clostridium sporogenes

Pathogenic Bacteria

In addition these pathogenic bacteria have mannose specific lectins on their cell surface allowing the pathogens to become bound to the MOS components and be washed out of the animal.

The Effect of Purified Beta Glucan on Peroxide Production by Macrophages in the Control of Pathogens.

Peroxide Production by Stimulated Macrophages In Culture

Increased Immune Responses in
Poultry gave better Resistance of
Salmonella Infection in a Challenge Trial.

Treatment	Feed Conversion		Weight Gain		Necrotic enteritis
Treatment	Day 0-28	Day 14-28	Day 0-28	Day 14-28	Lesion Score
Non-treated Not Infected	1.542	1.617	0.907	0.598	0
Non-treated Infected	1.809	2.29	0.74	0.444	0.7
Glucan Day 0-28 40g/ton infected	1.654	1.765	0.864	0.566	0.2

Impact of ImmuGuard on Somatic Cell Counts

Somatic Cell Count

Impact of ImmuGuard on Incidence of Clinical Mastitis

Mastitis

ImmuGuard Immune Stimulant has applications for the following animals: