F data). After starting with Se administration, animals in the Selsaf® group exhibited a stronger and faster recovery of their serum bactericide activity and where thus better able to resist pathogens.
Figure 6; effects of different sources of Se on layer performance
Figure 7; effect of Se source on broiler performance
Practical consequences for animal performances
As a matter of fact, in cattle respiratory pathologies are often of bacterial origin and generally appear in a range period between 6 to 10 days after exposure to a stressing event like transport (Hjerpe, 1983). The fast and strong recovery of the non-specific immune system after transportation with Selsaf® supplementation, was reflected in the incidence of morbidity related to Figure 9; influence of Se from different Figure 8; Deposition of Se from different respiratory disease which decreased sources on MDA sources in muscle from 41,2 percent in control group supplemented with SS to only 4,3 percent in animals receiving Selsaf® (Fig. 5A). Furthermore, To reduce this muscle catabolism under stress conditions and thus the influence of stress on zootechnical performance of farm the ability of Selsaf® supplemented animals to cope with stress animals, Selsaf® harbors a directly available source of active was also twinned in the growth performance as cattle from the control group with SS did not recover quickly their growth seleno-components which can be used immediately for the conversion to H2Se and subsequently for the formation of seleno- deficit accumulated during the period of convalescence (Fig. 5B) (unpublished data). enzymes like GPx. The influence of Selsaf® on animals’ general health and
Interest of Selsaf® for health
The capacity Selsaf® to increase the activity of seleno-enzymes, like GPx, and thus its ability to improve the anti-oxidative status of varies animal species, compared to non Se supplemented animals (NC) was previously demonstrated and is represented for dairy cows in figure 1 (unpublished data). Additionally, a trial in beef cattle recently demonstrated that supplementation of Selsaf® to these animals is able to increase the antiradical capacity of the whole blood when samples are exposed to a free radical attack. This antiradical capacity is in fact the measurement of the time necessary for the free radicals to hemolyze 50 percent of the erythrocytes. The data in figure 2 clearly show that free radicals need a significantly longer time to destroy erythrocytes in samples from animals receiving Selsaf® compared to SS (unpublished data). This means that Selsaf® is more efficient in improving the antioxidant capacity compared to inorganic sources of selenium (unpublished data). As oxidative stress is very often related to immunity Selsaf® raises not only the antioxidant capacities of animals but influences their immune system. As such, Selsaf® supplemented animals developed a higher number of neutralising antibodies in serum after vaccination with a bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV1) vaccine administrated on day 0 and 19 of the experiment (Fig. 3) (unpublished data). Next to increasing the specific immunity after vaccination, Selsaf® was also capable of improving the innate immunity as evidenced by measuring the bactericide activity of serum, which is the capacity of serum to inhibit the activity of some bacterial strains and thus characterises the non-specific immune system. In bovine species, a capacity below 90 percent indicates an increased sensitivity to pathogenic infections. Consequently, data show that at the beginning of the trial, so immediately after transportation and before Se supplementation had started, all animals were highly sensitive to infection (Fig. 4) (unpublished
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