title: The evaluation of selenium status of sheep from the major production areas of Morocco.
abstract: In order to evaluate the selenium status of sheep in the major raising areas of Morocco, blood selenium concentration, erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity and feed selenium levels were determined. A total of 843 blood samples from sheep and 118 feed samples were analyzed. Results showed that 73% of sheep sampled had blood selenium concentrations below 100 ng/ml, and were deficient or marginal. Erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity was below 19 IU/g hemoglobin and feed selenium levels below 0.1 mg/kg on a dry matter basis. The erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity was highly correlated with blood selenium concentration over a wide range of selenium levels (r = 0.88, P less than 0.001, N = 622), indicating that the enzyme can be used as an indicator of the selenium status of grazing sheep.
authors.affiliation: Département de Biochimie, Pharmacologie et Toxicologie, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hamliri
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kessabi
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Olson
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000201:enzymology; D005260:Female; D005979:Glutathione Peroxidase / Q000097:blood; D009018:Morocco; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012643:Selenium / Q000032:analysis / Q000097:blood*; D012756:Sheep / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D005979:Glutathione Peroxidase; D012643:Selenium