Novel research presented at this year's ADSA-ASAS Joint Annual Meeting highlights the beneficial effects of probiotic combinations on calf rearing. Accepted for the Late Breaking Original Research Abstracts, lead author Megan Duersteler presented the findings from a paper entitled 'Adding an anti-inflammatory lactic acid bacteria to a Bacillus-based direct-fed microbial improves calf performance'. The research showed that adding pre-selected, known anti-inflammatory lactic acid bacteria Enterococcus faecium, to a Bacillus-Lactobacillus -based direct-fed microbial (DFM) promoted a healthy appetite in the calf and gave a 9 percent improvement on cost per pound of weight gain. The newly formulated combination DFM product from Danisco (Omni-bos® CB Plus) contains three strains of Bacillus subtilis and one strain of Enterococcus faecium. The corresponding poster and presentation received positive feedback throughout the week from researchers and those in the calf industry who attended the meeting in New Orleans, La., USA. For further information please e-mail info.animalnutrition@danisco.com. 08.19.2011