Effect of selenium on growth performance and blood parameters oHolstein suckling calves

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate and compare the effects of inorganic and organic selenium sources with inorganic and organic carriers on growth performance, starter feed intake, blood parameters, and the concentration of glutathione peroxidase in the blood of suckling Holstein calves. To this objective, 40 suckling Holstein calves (38.47±2.52 kg average birth weight) at 7 days of age were selected and randomly divided into four experimental groups (10 replicates). The experimental groups included control (without selenium supplement), inorganic selenium (supplemented with sodium selenate), organic selenium with inorganic carriers and, organic selenium with organic carriers. The results show that the supplementation of selenium significantly increased the glutathione peroxidase enzyme concentration (P<0.01) and can significantly reduce the concentration of plasma cholesterol (P<0.01). However, there was no significant effect of selenium supplementation on serum glucose, plasma total protein, triglyceride, and urea nitrogen concentrations. Also, none of the treatments had a significant effect on growth performance and starter feed intake.