{"id":1281,"date":"2016-04-23T10:25:32","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T10:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2016-04-23T10:27:39","modified_gmt":"2016-04-23T10:27:39","slug":"selenium-se-supplementation-in-alpacas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/selenium-se-supplementation-in-alpacas\/","title":{"rendered":"Selenium (Se) supplementation in alpacas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Veterinarian Dr Robert Van Saun, from PennState University, has written a comprehensive article on selenium (Se) supplementation in camelids which can be read <a href=\"http:\/\/extension.psu.edu\/animals\/camelids\/nutrition\/selenium-nutrition-in-camelids\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. Dietary Se content issues in camelids are yet to be resolved, however, the currently recommended <em>daily intake of oral Se<\/em> is between 0.74 and 1 mg\/day\/animal (<em><strong>note: the amount is up to 1 mg Se orally per animal per day<\/strong><\/em>). This may be eaten in Se-adequate pasture or hay, but in areas where soil, pasture and hay are deficient, Se may be supplemented to alpacas either in a loose mineral lick or using an injectable supplement.<\/p>\n<p>Different commercially available mineral licks contain different levels of Se in them, and overall intake is regulated by salt content. If, for example, an oral mineral lick contained 90 <em>mg<\/em> Se\/<em>kg<\/em> mineral lick, (the equivalent of <em>mg\/kg<\/em>\u00a0in US terms used in Dr Van Saun&#8217;s article is <em>ppm<\/em>\u00a0= parts per million) then the camelid would need to ingest approximately 11 grams of mineral lick per day to ingest 1 mg Se. Enough salt is added to the mineral mix to deter any animal from ingesting too much of the mineral mix on any one day.<\/p>\n<p>I am currently undertaking a study on injectable selenium supplementation in alpacas in conjunction with Regional Laboratory Services in Victoria. The study thus far indicates that alpacas should only be injected subcutaneously with barium selenate, a depot product designed to release Se slowly into the system over a period of 12 months. Alpacas that were tested deficient in blood selenium and glutathione peroxidase (an enzyme that contains Se and can be used as a marker of Se sufficiency in livestock) were supplemented with barium selenate subcutaneously in June 2015. One month after injection, blood levels had risen to adequate concentrations, and 9 months into the study, alpacas still have adequate blood Se concentrations. Watch this space in June for a 12 month update. The findings will be published when final samples have been tested.<\/p>\n<p>Do not inject camelids with either sodium selenate or sodium selenite as the Se in this format is rapidly absorbed and has caused acute liver failure (death in &lt; 24 hours) in at least one alpaca in Australia. This case report is currently being written up for publication.<\/p>\n<p>Avoid using 5-in-1 vaccines and worm drenches containing Se if you are supplementing Se orally or by depot Se injection to avoid over-dosing your animals with Se. Too much selenium is toxic and will kill your animals.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veterinarian Dr Robert Van Saun, from PennState University, has written a comprehensive article on selenium (Se) supplementation in camelids which can be read here. Dietary Se content issues in camelids are yet&#8230; <a class=\"moretag hidemob\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/selenium-se-supplementation-in-alpacas\/\"> read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,15,19,18,22],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admin.criagenesis.cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}