All mammals that are lactating (producing milk), naturally secrete pheromones from the skin of the mammary gland area. These pheromones are vital in directing the newborn to find the teat, initiating suckling behaviour and bonding the mother and newborn, but they also reduce stress levels in the young mammal. 

For over 20 years, pheromone products have been available in the UK to help reduce behaviours associated with stress and anxiety in cats and dogs. Feliway and Adaptil are now household names amongst pet owners but recently a new pheromone product has become available, this time aimed at improving the wellbeing of cattle. 

What it is?

FerAppease is a synthetic version of the naturally occurring pheromone known as Maternal Bovine Appeasing Substance (mBAS). Applied as a liquid to the skin around the muzzle and poll (back of the head) of young cattle, FerAppease aims to reduce the perception of stress, for example during transportation, weaning or around housing time, with one application having calming effects lasting around 14 days.

How does it work?

In cattle, the natural pheromone mBAS is picked up by receptors in the nose of the calf and causes signals to be sent to the brain which reduce feelings of stress. This can be seen in action when a calf that has been temporarily separated from its mother, is reunited with her and rapidly settles back to a calm demeanor. FerAppease has been developed to copy this natural pheromone, connecting with the same receptors and signaling the same calming effect.

Why is it important?

Stress can have significant negative impacts, not only on productivity but also on animal health and welfare. Just as with humans, animals under high levels of stress are more susceptible to disease due to increased cortisol (stress hormone) levels and reduced functioning of the immune system. Diseases such as pneumonia (bovine respiratory disease – BRD) can be triggered by stress, and affected animals not only need medical treatment but will also have reduced feed intakes, reduced growth rates and poorer overall welfare.

While farmers are already striving to minimise livestock stress through calm, efficient handling, good environmental conditions, high health status and carefully considered management practices, calves do experience some unavoidable stress. Products such as FerAppease may offer farmers an additional strategy in their continuous efforts to improve animal welfare and optimise productivity.

When are pheromone products used? 

In dogs and cats, pheromones may be useful in any situation that an individual appears to, or may be expected to, find stressful. For example, rehoming, staying at boarding kennels/cattery, visiting the groomer, travelling, experiencing separation anxiety or coping with noise phobias such as fireworks. Many vet practices use pheromone plug-ins in their waiting or consulting rooms, and in dog and cat wards to help minimise the stress associated with vet visits or hospital stays.

In cattle, pheromone products would be targeted less on an individual basis, and more related to anticipated changes in circumstances or planned management procedures. Potential applications may include:

At weaning time 

In other words, when calves are separated from their mothers. Weaning time may coincide with other management procedures such as weighing, dosing for parasites or administering vaccines. Calves may also be moved at this time to different grazing/housing, often with a related change in diet. Stress can be reduced at this time by minimising other handling or procedures that are carried out at the same time, but weaning still carries a certain amount of stress that pheromone products may help to reduce. 

A 2023 study found that calves treated with pheromone at weaning showed increased growth rate in the 15 days thereafter, had reduced levels of cortisol, had better temperament scores, better feed intakes and even greater immune response to pneumonia vaccines given at the time of weaning.

At housing

Even calves that remain on the farm of their birth may experience some stress around housing time, with a change of environment, dietary change, management procedures such as dosing, and possibly mixing of individuals into different groups. This is a crucial time where higher levels of stress in the calves may allow diseases such as pneumonia to make an unwelcome appearance. Whilst many farmers are already taking preventative steps such as improving housing conditions, vaccinating against pneumonia viruses and minimising handling at housing time, pheromone treatments may offer an additional method for reducing stress and improving welfare at this time as well as improving the immune response to vaccines given at housing.

At sale

Calves that are sold off farm to be finished elsewhere may be transported and pass through a market before arriving at the finishing unit. There they may be mixed with other unknown calves and housed in a different environment from that which they are used to. Application of pheromone in the days leading up to sale may facilitate a smoother transition to their new homes, maintaining better food intakes throughout this period and improving overall calf welfare. 

Management procedures 

This would include stressful procedures such as castration, dehorning, vaccinating, TB testing etc. When these types of interventions are required, cattle should of course be handled calmly and quietly to minimise stress but the use of pheromones may also help to smooth the process and maintain better feed intakes in the days or weeks afterwards.

Around transportation, including transport to slaughter

Animals treated with FerAppease have, in some tests, been shown to have lower blood cortisol levels at slaughter compared with untreated calves.  

Dairy calves

A U.S. study found that when dairy calves received pheromone treatment fortnightly from birth until 60 days of age the incidence of scour (diarrhoea) was reduced and less deaths were recorded in treated vs non-treated animals. It was also considered that when the same calves were treated with a single dose at the time of moving into group pens (from individual), the calves appeared to adapt more quickly to the new environment.

Although FerAppease has only recently become available in the UK, there is already some anecdotal evidence that its use in very young dairy calves appears to be smoothing the transition to new environments and helping calves to settle more quickly to use automatic milk feeders, which in turn maintains higher animal welfare and better feed intakes and therefore growth rates.

Again, anecdotal reports in the UK so far suggest that application of pheromone to dairy heifers at the point of first calving has eased the transition into the milking herd, allowed the heifers to start milking more readily and to be trained into robotic milking systems.  

Are cattle pheromone products safe for humans and animals? 

Pheromones are NOT hormones or growth promoters, rather a mixture of fatty acids that are not considered to be medicinal products at all and are of no concern in terms of food safety. By reducing stress, they may allow an animal to grow “better” and to reach its full potential more quickly, but they do not promote increased growth over what each animal would naturally achieve under ideal, stress-free conditions. They do, however, appear to have the potential to improve animal welfare by combating stress and helping to maintain good health and immunity.

Conclusion

Pheromone treatments in cattle appear to have very little to go against their use and potentially there is much to be gained by reducing stress in cattle using pheromones. Much of the research surrounding FerAppease thus far has been carried out in high stress farming environments such as large fattening cattle feed lot systems in the U.S. Just how effective (and cost-effective) pheromone products will prove to be within UK cattle farming systems remains to be seen but work is well underway to establish this.

Minimising stress and protecting cattle welfare is vital but pheromone treatments should not be viewed as a substitute for good management practices, appropriate disease control and healthy environments. Speaking to your vet, attending organised farm walks or engaging with your local farm advisory service can all be great ways of getting some outside perspective onto your farm, to see where practical changes could be made to reduce cattle stress and improve the overall health and wellbeing of your livestock. And with good health, environment and management protocols in place, perhaps pheromone products such as FerAppease could be the icing on the cake when it comes to cattle welfare.