Using hydroxyl selenomethionine as an antioxidant for weaned piglets

After weaning, piglets face various challenges, such as relocation, new housing, mixing with unfamiliar piglets, dietary switch from milk to solid feeds, resulting in stresses to their metabolic system that often lead to gut inflammation accompanied with increased level of oxidised products, which further increases the severity of any intestinal disorder. The selenium (Se) based enzyme, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-px) is widely present in the intestinal villi, and protects the intestines against oxidative stress. The efficiency of Se uptake from diet into the body tissues depends on the source supplied, and Se-yeast has been found more nutritionally effective than selenite (Mahan et al. 1999). The main shortfall of the yeast source is its Se occurs as many different molecules, which are inconsistent and make it difficult to define the level of selenomethionine (SeMet).

A new commercial compound, hydroxyl selenomethionine (OH-SeMet, Selisseo, MinAscent Leuna Production, GmbH, Germany), produced from chemical synthesis, has been reported to be 40–60% more efficiently incorporated into the liver and muscle than Se-yeast (Jlali et al. 2014). The following trial was conducted to ascertain the efficacy of this source of Se and how it can promote antioxidant status in piglets. This study used 252 hybrid piglets, weaned at d 21, randomly allocated to seven treatments (36 pigs/treatment, six replicates × six pigs/pen). The basal diet contained 0.13 ppm Se, and was supplemented with either selenite (0.3 ppm) or OH-SeMet at five levels. Measurements included feed intake, growth, feed conversion and number of pigs and days on diarrhoea v. total number of pigs and days. The trial lasted 28 days. At the end of the trial, one pig per replicate was randomly selected and sacrificed in order to analyse tissue to determine Se status. Data were analysed via ANOVA using Software SPSS v20.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA).

The results (Table 1) showed that Se source and level did not alter performance although addition from either selenite or OH-SeMet increased Se content (P < 0.05) in the liver, and increased sequentially with higher doses of the OH-SeMet. However, when GSH-px was measured, responses to dietary treatments were inconsistent. Addition of OH-SeMet at 0.2 ppm and above significantly reduced diarrhoea (P < 0.05) compared to the unsupplemented control group.

Table 1.  The effect of supplementing Se sources and levels on antioxidant status and performance

In conclusion, OH-SeMet appeared to be effective in enhancing liver Se content, which may have been involved in promoting antioxidant status in weaned piglets, leading to reduced diarrhoea occurrence.