The Biological Value of Selenium in Bovine Milk for the Rat and Chick

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Abstract
Chemical and biological assays of experimentally produced dried skim milks demonstrated that the lactating cow could incorporate selenite placed in the rumen into milk. Rat and chick assays were designed to test the biological potency of milk selenium as compared with selenite for growth and the prevention of death due to liver necrosis or exudative diathesis. The basal diets contained Torula yeast, and 4 to 10% dried skim milk was added at the expense of the carbohydrate. Selenium source comparisons were made only within the same level of dried skim milk supplementation; selenium was supplied either by induced high selenium milk or by “normal” low selenium milk plus an equated amount of Na2SeO3. In the rat assays the high protein quality of the added skim milks produced a greater protective effect than could be attributed to their selenium content. However, controlled comparisons showed no significant differences between the selenium sources. In the chick assay, the milk source was of greater biological value than the selenite source for the prevention of exudative diathesis.