Effects of feeding pregnant beef cows selenium-enriched alfalfa hay on selenium status and antibody titers in their newborn calves

Abstract

In newborn dairy calves, it has been demonstrated that supranutritional maternal and colostral Se supplementation using Se yeast or sodium selenite, respectively, improves passive transfer of IgG. In beef cattle, agronomic biofortification with Se is a more practical alternative for Se supplementation, whereby the Se concentration of hay is increased through the use of Se-containing fertilizer amendments. It has been previously demonstrated that agronomic Se biofortification is an effective strategy to improve immunity and performance in Se-replete weaned beef calves. The objective of this experiment was to determine the effects of feeding beef cows Se-enriched alfalfa () hay during the last 8 to 12 wk of gestation on passive transfer of antibodies to calves. At 10 wk ± 16 d before calving, 45 cows were assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups with 3 pens (5 cows/pen) per treatment: Control cows were fed non-Se-fortified alfalfa hay plus a mineral supplement containing 120 mg/kg Se from sodium selenite, Med-Se cows were fed alfalfa hay fertilized with 45.0 g Se/ha as sodium selenate, and High-Se cows were fed alfalfa hay fertilized with 89.9 g Se/ha as sodium selenate; both the Med-Se and the High-Se groups received mineral supplement without added Se. Colostrum and whole blood (WB) were collected from cows at calving, and WB was collected from calves within 2 h of calving and at 12, 24, 36, and 48 h of age. Concentrations of IgG1 and J-5 antibody in cow colostrum and calf serum were quantified using ELISA procedures. Selenium concentrations linearly increased in WB ( < 0.001) and colostrum ( < 0.001) of cows and in WB of newborn calves ( < 0.001) with increasing Se concentration in alfalfa hay. Colostrum concentrations of IgG1 ( = 0.03) were increased in cows fed Se-biofortified alfalfa hay, but J-5 antibody ( = 0.43) concentrations were not. Calf serum IgG1 ( = 0.43) and J-5 antibody ( = 0.44) concentrations during the first 48 h of age were not affected by prior Se treatment of cows. These data suggest that feeding Se-biofortified alfalfa hay promotes the accumulation of Se and antibodies in colostrum but does not affect short-term serum antibody concentrations in calves.

Selenium biofortified alfalfa hay fed in low quantities improves selenium status and glutathione peroxidase activity in transition dairy cows and their calves

“…Pregnant beef cows receiving 28 mg of Se/d via Se biofortified hay had a linear increase in the amount of Se in whole blood reaching approximately 250 ng/ml after four weeks and >300 ng/ml after 10 weeks of feeding (Wallace et al, 2017). In our case, we did not observe a linear increase, rather, the cows reached a plateau of Se in blood in 3 weeks with values slightly lower than those detected in beef cows after 4 weeks of treatment.…”

“…Biofortification of forages with Se (through fertilization of the soil with inorganic Se that is then absorbed and accumulated into the plant) is an effective approach to improve Se in the diet of cattle (Hall et al, 2011;2013;Novoselec et al, 2018). Feeding Se biofortified forages successfully improves the Se status of pregnant beef cows and improves the concentration of immunoglobulins in colostrum and the Se status and performance of their calves (Hall et al, 2013;Ranches et al, 2017;Wallace et al, 2017). These studies were performed in beef animals and, except for one study (Ranches et al, 2017), the researchers fed a relatively large amount of Se biofortified forages (up to 2.5% of BW).…”