Chemical Forms of Selenium in Corn and Rice Grown in a High Selenium Area of China

The chemical forms of selenium were determined in maize grown near Yutangba Village and in rice grown near Haubei village, Exi Prefecture, Enshi county of Hubei Province, China. The maize sample contained 18 ppm and the rice samples an average of 3.6 ppm selenium. After they were ground to obtain a fine flour, this was acid hydrolyzed with hydrochloric acid in an inert atmosphere and the hydrolyzates chromatographed on columns of Dionex DC6A resin. The results indicate that the majority of the selenium is present as selenomethionine in both rice and corn.

Observations on the Efficacy of Various Forms of Selenium for Livestock: A Review

Since 1957, selenium has found extensive use in livestock production to maintain an adequate selenium status in animals in areas of soil and feed/forage deficiency. Selenium may be given directly to livestock, or applied as a fertilizer amendment to increase selenium content of their feeds. This paper addresses the area of direct supplementation, which includes oral and parenteral supplementation, and with ruminant animals the use of slow-release boluses. Various chemical forms of selenium have been examined as supplemental sources, with sodium selenite being the earliest compound of choice. Comnbination of selenium supplementation with other livestock managernent practices led to use of selenium dioxide, which avoided solubility problems with selenite but produced effective responses. Barium salts have been used with some success as supplemental selenium sources. Experience with ruminal boluses has shown that high pressure pelleting of increased grain size selenium, in hollow pellets, has prolonged their useful life. Attention has been paid recently to residual selenium returned to the soil from livestock supplementation practices and the resulting opinion is that currently approved practices are acceptable from the point of view of environmental quality