T/F: Overdosing selenium deficiency treatment can lead to selenium toxicosis
TRUE
What levels are considered selenium deficient?
<0.05 ppm
Selenium deficiency diseases?
- White muscle disease (WMD) or nutritional muscle dystrophy (NMD) in lambs, but also seen in calves and foals
- Hepatosis dietetica in young pigs
- Exudative diathesis in chicks
- Nutritional pancreatic atrophy in chickens
- Porcine stress syndrome in pigs
Where is selenium deficient soil common?
- Northwest
- Northeast
- Southeast
- Great lakes
What level of selenium qualifies soil as selenium-rich? Where is it located?
- 2-10 ppm
- South Dakota
- North Dakota
- Wyoming
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Kansas
- Utah
- Colorado
- New Mexico
What are the selenium requirements?
0.1 mg/kg (depends on vitamin E)
Remember: 0.1mg/kg = 0.1ppm
What are the various uses for selenium?
- Feed supplements for cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry
- Injectable selenium-vitamin E preparations
- Antioxidant supplements (animal and human)
- Used in medical shampoos for treatment of dermatitis
Sources of selenium?
- Cattle, sheep, and horses may graze seleniferous plants
- Swine and poultry may eat grains grown on selenium-rich soil
What are seleniferous plants? What are the various types?
Plants that accumulate Se in Se-rich soil
Obligate accumulators (Se-indicator plants), facultative accumulators, and passive accumulators
How much Se can obligate accumulators accumulate?
Up to 15,000 ppm Se
T/F: Obligate Se accumulators require Se for growth
TRUE
What plants are obligate accumulators of Se?
-
Astragalus (locoweed, milk vetch)
-
Stanleya (prince's plume)
-
Oonopsis (golden wood)
-
Xylorrhiza (woody aster)
How much Se can facultative accumulators collect?
Accumulate up to 25-100 ppm
Do facultative accumulators require Se?
Nope, but they can accumulate it
Examples of facultative accumulators?
- Aster
-
Atriplex (saltbush)
-
Castilleja (paint brush)
Passive accumulators: Se levels?
Accumulate up to 1-25 ppm Se
Where do passive accumulators build up Se?
Accumulate Se passively in Se-rich soil
Examples of passive Se accumulators?
Many plants including crop plants such as corn, wheat, oats, barley, grass, hay, and other plants
Causes of Se toxicosis?
- Overdosage w/ Se preparations or supplements
- Se-contaminate water causes teratogenic effects in waterfowl
- Improper use of Se-medicated shampoos may cause toxicosis in small animals
What is this?

Astragalus (locoweed)

What is this?

Astragalus (milkvetch)

What is this?

Stanleya pinnata (prince's plume)
T/F: Se is a non-essential trace element
FALSE--it is an essential trace element
What 3 states does Se have?
3 oxidation states: selenate (+6), selenite (+4), and selenide (+2)
What elements are Se's physical and chemical properties similar to?
Sulfur and arsenic
T/F: Se combines with the -NH3 group of glutathione
FALSE--Se combines with the -SH group of glutathione
What is Se a component of?
Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px)
How does selenium act as an antioxidant?
By prevention of peroxide accumulation through reduction of glutathione
What is synergistic to GSH-Px?
Vitamin E
What does Se-vitamin E prevent?
Cellular degeneration and cell membrane damage in animals and poultry
T/F: Se is also found in 5-deiodinase (conversion of T4 to T3)
TRUE
What is Se an irritant to?
Mucous membranes (like other metals)
What is the toxicity of the various Se forms (greatest to least)?
Organic Se in plants > selenate = selenite > selenide > synthetic organoselenium compounds
What are the acute toxic doses of oral selenium (selenite)?
- 3.3 mg/kg in the horse
- 10 mg/kg in cattle
- 17 mg/kg in swine
What is the oral Se subacute toxic level for swine?
20-50 ppm for 3 days or more
What is the chronic toxic level of selenium?
5-10 ppm for several weeks or months in horses, cattle, and swine
Which soil promotes formation of selenate?
Arid alkaline soil of the Great Plains
T/F: Elemental Se is relatively nontoxic
TRUE
What is toxicity reduced by?
High protein diet and ingestion of other elements that bind Se such as Cu
T/F: Seleniferous plants are odorless and palatable
FALSE--Seleniferous plants have a bad odor and are unpalatable (only eaten when other forage is unavailable)
Where is Se readily absorbed from?
Small intestine
Which Se state is more readily absorbed?
The soluble organic Se in plants is more rapidly absorbed than selenite, selenate, and selenide
Is elemental Se absorbed?
Nope--it's not soluble in water
Where is Se distributed in the body?
Distributed throughout the body particularly to the liver, kidney, and spleen
Chronic exposure of Se leads to high concentrations where in the body?
Hair and hoof
T/F: Se crosses the placenta (teratogenic) but is not excreted in milk
FALSE--it crosses the placenta and is excreted in milk
Where is Se excreted? What increases its excretion?
Se is mainly excreted in urine, but also in bile
Arsenic increases biliary excretion
T/F: Se causes irritation of GI mucosa (subacute and acute)
TRUE
Se toxicosis causes dramatic depletion of what?
Tissue glutathione (GSH)
What does Se replace following Se toxicosis?
Replaces sulfur in amino acids causing abnormal proteins
What does Se toxicosis decrease?
Decreases ATP in chronic toxicosis
Decreased tissue absorbic acid
What is death in acute and subacute Se toxicosis mainly due to?
Respiratory insufficiency resulting from pulmonary edema and hemorrhage
What might death in chronic Se toxicosis be due to?
Starvation and thirst resulting from weakness, lameness, blindness
Clinical signs of acute oral Se toxicosis?
- Onset in a few hours to a few days
- GI signs such as colic, bloat, and dark watery diarrhea
- Resp signs such as labored resp w/ fluid sounds in the lungs, bloody froth from the nares, and cyanosis
- Other signs include fever, polyuria, mydriasis, and uncertain gait
- Death in hours
Clinical signs of acute parenteral Se toxicosis?
Neuro signs including mydriasis and incoordination
What do ranchers call subacute Se toxicosis in cattle?
"Blind staggers"
Clinical signs during stage 1 of subacute Se toxicosis in cattle?
- Poor appetite
- Aimless wandering
- Circling
- Walking through objects
- Normal respiration and temperature
Clinical signs during stage 2 of subacute Se toxicosis in cattle?
- Stage 1 signs +:
- Depression
- Incoordination
- Foreleg weakness and walking on the knees
- Complete anorexia
Clinical signs during stage 3 of subacute Se toxicosis in cattle?
- Colic
- Hypothermia
- Emaciation
- Clouded corneas near blindness
- Paresis
- Coma
- Death in a few hours
Clinical signs of subacute Se toxicosis in sheep?
Signs are similar to cattle but the stages are not well defined
Clinical signs of subacute Se toxicosis in swine?
- A neuroparalytic condition called "porcine focal symmetrical poliomyelomalacia"
- Neuro signs include coordination, lameness, and paralysis
- Other signs including alopecia, hoof abnormalities and separation of the hoof
Clinical signs of chronic toxicosis (alkali disease)?
- Rough hair coat, loss of hair from mane and tail
- Hoof deformities and sloughing, stiffness of joints, and lameness
- Partial blindness, anemia, lethargy, emaciation, infertility, and birth defects

What are the lesions of acute Se toxicosis?
- Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis
- Congestion of organs
- Hemorrhages
- Pulmonary edema
- Hydrothorax
- Gut contents may smell like rotten garlic or rotten horseradish (hydrogen selenide)
What are the lesions of subacute Se toxicosis in swine?
Focal symmetrical poliomyelomalacia
What are the lesions of chronic Se toxicosis?
- Abnormal hooves
- Cardiac damage
- Hepatic necrosis
Lab analysis of Se toxicosis (acute vs. chronic)?
- Elevated Se (> 2ppm in acute and >5ppm in chronic)
- Acute: blood, kidney, liver
- Chronic: hair and hoof (must be washed before analysis)
- Blood or plasma glutathione peroxidase activity correlates well w/ blood Se concentration in cattle, sheep, and swine (but NOT in horses)
- Acute: blood, kidney, liver
- Chronic: hair and hoof (must be washed before analysis)
DDx for acute or subacute Se toxicosis?
- Pneumonia
- Infectious hepatitis
- Enterotoxemia
- Pasteurellosis
DDx for chronic Se toxicosis?
- Molybdenum toxicosis
- Flouride toxicosis
- Freezing
- Ergotism
- Laminitis
What is the treatment for acute Se toxicosis?
- Saline cathartics
- Symptomatic therapy (oxygen, treatment for pulmonary edema, circulatory shock, and gastroenteritis)
- Acetylcysteine (140mg/kg IV, followed by 70mg/kg daily in 4 divided doses)
What are some preventions for subacute and chronic Se toxicosis?
- Soil and forage should be tested regularly for Se levels
- Remove the animals from seleniferous areas
- Addition of Cu to the diet, high protein diet, increasing Su-containing proteins may reduce toxicosis
- Addition of organic arsenicals to the diet increases biliary excretion of Se
Prognosis of acute Se toxicosis?
Poor--animals die quickly