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August 3, 2006 NDSU Studies Selenium in Livestock Diets The North Dakota State University Center for Nutrition and Pregnancy (CNP) is evaluating the effects of nutrition level and selenium supplementation on livestock during gestation. Proper nutrition during gestation is critical to healthy offspring and lifelong productivity, researchers say. Selenium is a trace mineral that is essential to good health. It aids in preventing cellular damage that may contribute to cancers or heart disease development. It also can help regulate thyroid function and play a role in the immune system. The center’s four-year project, titled “Effects of Maternal Undernutrition and High Selenium During Gestation on Growth and Osculation of Key Nutrient Transferring Tissue,” is completing its second year of research. The center is affiliated with the NDSU Department of Animal and Range Sciences. The long-term goal of this project is to understand the impacts of maternal nutrition on tissue growth and the animal’s end-product quality, according to Joel Caton, a professor in the Animal and Range Sciences Department. “Too much selenium causes toxicity, while too little results in malnutrition,” he says. “Existing data also suggests that selenium provided above requirements and below toxic levels may produce a production advantage for livestock producers and a more healthful product for human consumption.” Livestock producers in the northern Plains region have seen cases of toxicity and malnutrition, so results will be useful in developing applicable selenium recommendations for livestock, he adds. “It is very exciting working on these types of projects because the data has benefit and application in both livestock production and human biomedicine,” Caton says. “In some ways, it’s like a two-for-one special.” Interest in high-selenium foods for human consumption is growing, and collaborative research at NDSU is providing critical data in that area. Scientists at the CNP are conducting research in the Animal Nutrition and Physiology Center (ANPC), which also is affiliated with the Department of Animal and Range Sciences. “The excellent facilities we have to work with help increase our research opportunities,” says Kimberly Vonnahme, an assistant professor in the Animal and Range Sciences Department. The ANPC provides a state-of-the-art research facility to work with large animal models. As part of a recent study, ewes were fed high- or low-selenium diets during gestation. Once born, the lambs were bottle-fed. “Bottle-feeding the lambs allowed us to isolate the maternal effects on lamb growth and development to gestation,” says Caton. “After the lambs were born, we gave each of them the same amount of colostrums and milk for the first 24 hours.” When determining the developmental differences between high- and low-selenium fed animals, some variables the CNP looks at are maternal and fetal intestines, placental development, the mammary gland, muscle development and angiogenesis (the development of blood vessels). “It takes many collaborators to put a research project like this together,” says Vonnahme. “We want to have the strongest scientists possible contributing to the research effort,” Caton adds. The team consists of scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Dubois, Idaho; the USDA’s Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center; University of Wyoming; and Rowett Research Institute in Scotland. In addition to Caton and Vonnahme, NDSU scientists involved are Dale Redmer, Lawrence Reynolds, Carrie Hammer, Justin Luther and Anna Grazul-Bilska, all from the Animal and Range Sciences Department. NDSU students also assist with projects at the center. “The center is always looking for interested undergraduate and graduate students,” says Vonnahme. “It’s a great opportunity for students to be involved in research as they conduct their own independent projects.” The CNP operates mostly through research grants and contracts from state, regional and federal agencies, and also from the private sector. For example, a $420,000 grant was awarded to Caton, Vonnahme and Redmer from the USDA’s National Research Initiative to aid in their selenium research in sheep. For more information about the CNP, visit its Web site at http://cnp.ndsu.nodak.edu. ### Source: Kimberly
Vonnahme, (701) 231-5883, kim.vonnahme@ndsu.edu
Cutline: Dale Redmer, a professor in the NDSU Department of Animal and Range Sciences, is handling a set of newborn twin lambs that were used in a selenium and nutrition research project at the Center for Nutrition and Pregnancy. |
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