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Contrasting Nutritional Responses to Vitamin E and Selenium in Lambs¹

University of Wisconsin, Madison^3,4,

Abstract

Infant lambs fed an unsupplemented liquid diet containing torula yeast and stripped lard developed gross and microscopic symptoms of nutritional muscular dystrophy in 16 to 36 days with very high levels of serum glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase (SGOT). Selenium supplementation stimulated growth early in the experiments to a greater extent than vitamin E and prevented the clinical symptoms of dystrophy. However, SGOT values were elevated, the red blood cells were very susceptible to hemolysis and the growth rate declined late in the experiment. On autopsy the muscles showed increased autolytic activity and microscopic lesions. Thus, selenium seemed to have delayed and moderated the course of the disease but did not prevent it entirely. Vitamin E in adequate amounts prevented all symptoms of dystrophy. The combination of selenium and vitamin E showed the positive effects of both nutrients.

When vitamin E and selenium were given to lambs suckling ewes fed a dystrophogenic hay, the results were similar to those with artificial milk, but the contrasts between tocopherol and selenium and between positive and negative controls were not as great. Vitamin E fully protected against dystrophy, while selenium delayed and modified the characteristic SGOT increase and stimulated growth slightly.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, and supported in part by the Research Committee of the Graduate School from funds supplied by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the U. S. Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health Grant C-2177.

² Present address: Food and Drug Administration, Washington, D. C.

³ The authors gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the Department of Veterinary Science.

⁴ Department of Meat and Animal Science Paper No. 383, and Biochemistry Department.