Selenium in soils, pastures and animal tissues in relation to the growth of young sheep on a marginally selenium-deficient area

Abstract

Extract

Selenium-responsive diseases of farm animals in New Zealand have been reviewed by Andrews et al. (1968). In sheep these may be manifested as infertility in ewes, as “congenital” or “delayed” white muscle disease in lambs, or as unthriftiness, a condition usually more apparent in young animals. As evidenced by weight responses of lambs to dosing with selenium salts, selenium-responsive unthriftiness has occurred widely in New Zealand (Robertson and During, 1961). Most investigations into selenium-responsive conditions, e.g., Cousins and Cairney, 1961; Hartley, 1967; A. B. Grant, pers. comm.) have related mainly to areas that could be described as severely selenium-deficient.