title: Impacts of feeding selenium-methionine and chromium-methionine on performance, serum components, antioxidant status, and physiological responses to transportation stress of Baluchi ewe lambs.
abstract: The effects of selenium-methionine (Se-Met) and chromium-methionine (Cr-Met) supplementation on performance and response to transportation stress were studied on 24 Baluchi ewe lambs (18-20 weeks of age) for 9 weeks. The lambs were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments: (1) control; (2) 1.5 mg supplemental Se-Met/kg dry matter (DM) of diet; (3) 0.8 mg supplemental Cr-Met/kg DM of diet; and (4) 1.5 mg Se-Met plus 0.8 mg Cr-Met/kg DM of diet (Se-Cr-Met). At the commencement of week 8, a road transportation stress (TS) was carried out for 30 min. Lambs fed Cr-Met and Se-Cr-Met diets had higher feed intake than the control and Se-Met animals (P < 0.0001). Lambs on Cr-Met diet showed higher average daily gain (ADG) compared to the control group (P = 0.007). Se-Met and Cr-Met supplementation alone or in combination significantly (P < 0.05) reduced feed conversion ratio (FCR). The animals that received Se-Met (P = 0.014), Cr-Met (P = 0.005), and Se-Cr-Met (P = 0.003) supplemented diets had lower glucose concentration than the control. Lambs on Cr-Met had higher blood T3 concentration than control animals (P = 0.040), while Cr-Met (P = 0.039) and Se-Cr-Met (P = 0.032) supplementation increased triiodothyronine (T3) to thyroxin (T4) ratio. Animals fed Se-Met and/or Cr-Met supplements had lower blood malondialdehyde (MDA) in week 9 of the experiment (P < 0.05). Blood ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) tended to be higher in the Se-Met- and Se-Cr-Met-supplemented groups (P < 0.1).TS reduced feed intake in lambs fed the control diet in week 8 of the experiment (P = 0.003). The lambs given with supplemental Cr-Met exhibited lower glucose concentration before transportation (BT) (P = 0.029) and after transportation (AT) (P = 0.016) compared to the control. Lambs fed Se-Cr-Met had the lowest cortisol concentration BT (P < 0.05). It was concluded that feeding Se-Met and/or Cr-Met supplements could improve growth performance and be beneficial in attenuating the adverse effects of transportation stress in Baluchi ewe lambs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, 9177948974, Iran, moosaee.amir@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mousaie
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Valizadeh
authors.forename: Abbas Ali
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Naserian
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heidarpour
authors.forename: Hossein Kazemi
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Mehrjerdi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000378:metabolism*; D002857:Chromium / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008715:Methionine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012643:Selenium / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012756:Sheep; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D002857:Chromium; D008715:Methionine; D012643:Selenium