Effects of dietary selenium, sulphur and copper levels on selenium concentration in the serum and liver of lamb

Thirty-two lambs were distributed in eight treatments under 2×2×2 factorial experiment to compare the effects of two levels of selenium (0.2 to 5 mg/kg dry matter [DM]), sulphur (0.25% and 0.37%) and copper (8 and 25 mg/kg DM) levels on selenium concentration in liver and serum of lambs. A liver biopsy was done on all animals and blood samples were collected from the jugular vein prior to the beginning of the treatments. The blood was sampled every thirty days and the liver was sampled after 90 days, at the slaughter. Increasing differences were noticed during the data collection period for the serum selenium concentration, and it was found to be 0.667 mg/L in animals fed with 5 mg Se/kg DM and normal sulphur and copper concentrations in their diet. However, a three-way interaction and a reduction of selenium concentration to 0.483 mg/L was verified when increasing copper and sulphur concentration levels to 25 ppm and 0.37% respectively. The liver selenium concentration was also high for diets containing higher selenium concentrations, but the antagonist effect with the increased copper and sulphur levels remained, due to interactions between these minerals. Therefore, for regions where selenium is scarce, increasing its concentration in animal diets can be an interesting option. For regions with higher levels of selenium, the antagonistic effect of interaction between these three minerals should be used by increasing copper and sulphur dietary concentrations, thus preventing possible selenium poisoning.