Purdue University	Mimeo A.H. 229
Agricultural Experiment Station	April 25, 1958
Lafayette, Indiana
EFFECT OF TRANQUILIZERS FED WITH AND WITHOUT STILBESTROL AND TERRAMYCIN TO STEER CALVES
W. M. Beeson, T, Wo Perry, F« N, Andrews and Martin Stob
Tranquilizers have been used for several years to treat human patients suffering from different types of hypertension and mental distress. Only recently have these drugs been used in large animal research. Sherman and co-workers (Chas. Pfizer & Co., Terre Haute, Indiana) have reported that certain tranquilizers will improve gain and feed efficiency in cattle and sheep. It is well known that large doses of certain tranquilizers will sedate (quiet down) animals, and this treatment is used in veterinary practice. It is too early to predict the future and adaptation of tranquilizers in livestock production. At present the adaptation of tranquilizers to livestock is still in the experimental stage, and further research needs to be conducted before we can determine their true effect.
This experiment was designed:
(1)	To study the effect of feeding several tranquilizers—Rauwolfia vomitoria, reserpine and hydroxyzine—on the gain, feed intake, feed efficiency and carcass quality of cattle.
(2)	To determine the response of steers to tranquilizers when fed with and without stilbestrol and terramycin.
Tranquilizers, stilbestrol implants and terramycin were furnished by Chas, Pfizer & Co Inc., Agricultural Research and Development Department, Terre Haute, Indiana.
Experimental Procedure
One-hundred-fifty Hereford steer calves, which were raised in Oklahoma, were purchased at an average price of $26,25 per hundredweight delivered at Lafayette, Indiana Seventy-two of heavy end of these steer calves (ave, wt. 520 lb.) were sorted equally into 12 lots of 6 steers each.
All lots were fed on the following basal ration:
Mineral mixture was composed of 2 parts of bonemeal and 1 part iodized salt plus free access to plain salt in another box.