BioAgra, LLC, today announced the completion of a successful university study of its product Agrastim®, a purified yeast glucan product with an 80% or greater biological activity.

This study was conducted at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA, in collaboration with the Southern Poultry Research Institute under the direction of Dr. Charles Hofacre and Mr. Greg Mathis, Ph.D., President of Southern Poultry Research Institute. Dr. Hofacre is considered the foremost authority on necrotic enteritis by the poultry industry and the scientific community. The study was designed to demonstrate that Agrastim® can safely and effectively replace antibiotics in the feed of broilers when challenged by Clostridium perfringens, the agent that causes necrotic enteritis.

Necrotic enteritis is a disease that causes significant losses in the broiler industry. Once the disease is identified, the flock is usually treated with antibiotics, to reduce mortality and economic loss. Since the marketplace now is demanding antibiotic-free chickens, it has become necessary for the poultry industry to find new non-antibiotic means to prevent and/or limit the occurrence of necrotic enteritis and other diseases.

This study supports BioAgra’s claim that Agrastim® is able to safely and economically replace antibiotics in poultry feeds even in the presence of infectious agents. BioAgra expects that under conditions in which subclinical infections are present, Agrastim® may perform even better than antibiotics. Agrastim® can be used in the feed stock of all living organisms and directly activates both the innate and adaptive immune systems.