Vitamin E benefits cattle, too

Low-level infections in cattle can slow the animals’ growth and stress their immune systems. That’s why farmers often feed animals small amounts of antibiotics. But such chronic antibiotic use can speed the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which then may end up infecting people.

One alternative to antibiotics is to prime a calf’s immune system with vitamin E, says Ted Elsasser of the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md.