Chapter 6: Selenium in boar nutrition
In: Selenium in pig nutrition and healthDepartment of Hygiene and Poultry Sciences, Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology Named After K.I. Skryabin, 109472 Moscow, Russia.
Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Trakia University, 6000 Stara Zagora, Bulgaria.
Department of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Szent Istvan University, 2103 Gödöllo, Hungary.
Saint-Petersburg State Academy of Veterinary Medicine, 196084 St. Petersburg, Russia.
Sumy National Agrarian University, 40000 Sumy, Ukraine.
Odessa National Academy of Food Technologies, 65039 Odessa, Ukraine.
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Selenium plays an important role in boar nutrition. In particular high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids in boar testes and spermatozoa predispose them to be very susceptible to oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation. The requirement of boars for selenium varies depending on many environmental and other conditions and in general is considered to be 0.30 mg/kg feed and meeting boar Se requirements is an important challenge for pig nutritionists. In many countries there are legal limits as to how much Se may be included into the diet and this restricts flexibility in terms of addressing the Se needs of the developing and reproducing pigs. The analysis of data of various boar trials with different Se sources indicates, that in some cases when background Se levels were low, there were advantages of Se dietary supplementation. However, only an optimal Se status of animals is associated with the best antioxidant protection and could have positive effects on boar semen production and its quality. Nevertheless, in many cases background Se levels were not determined and therefore it is difficult to judge if the basic diets were deficient in Se. It can also be suggested that, because of higher efficacy of assimilation from the diet, and possibilities of building Se reserves in the body, organic selenium in the form of SeMet provided by a range of products is an important source of Se to better meet the needs of modern pig genotypes. In particular, organic Se in the form of OH-SeMet was shown to be an effective form of organic Se for pigs, poultry and ruminants.