Effects of Organic Selenium on Growth Properties, Selenium Absorption and Utilization, Antioxidant Activity and Immunity in Weaning Piglets

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to determine the influences of adding organic selenium (Se) on growth properties, Se absorption and utilization, immunity and antioxidant activity in diets of Duroc weaning piglets. This study was performed on 36 (average weight 7.6 kg) weaning piglets. The weaning piglets were randomly allocated to 1 of 4 homogeneous treatments (A, control treatment, no added Se; B, Sodium selenite, 0.3 mg Se/kg feed; C, yeast Se, 0.3 mg Se/kg; D, DL-methionine Se 0.3 mg Se/kg). Every treatment had 3 replicates, every replicate had 3 piglets. The experiment lasted for 35 d, with the first 7 d for adaptation. Feed intake, residual and contaminated feed were recorded every day. Every piglet weight was weighted respectively at beginning and end of experiment. Daily intake, gain weight and feed conversion rates of every replicate were calculated finally. Se concentrations of serum, blood antioxidant and immunity index were analyzed in the 36th d of experiment. The results showed average daily gain of treatment C was significant higher (P < 0.05) and D had higher trend than that of treatment A and B (P = 0.06) respectively. And feed and gain ratio of C and D had trends to lower than them of A and B (P = 0.14). However, all the intake of every week and whole period had no significant differences among treatments (P > 0.05). At same time, except for the Immunoglobulin M of treatment D and C was higher than that of treatment A and B significantly (P < 0.05), all the other Se contents of serum, immunity indexes, blood cell parameters and enzymatic activities had no significant differences among treatments (P > 0.05). But they took on some obvious trends. For example, the Se contents and glutathione peroxidase activities increased successively in order of treatment A, B, C and D; the blood urea nitrogen and total bilirubin of treatment A had higher trend than that of other treatments (P = 0.06)...