Organic forms of selenium are showing positive performance results in poultry. Ghislaine Roch, an independent feed nutritionist in Canada, has been working on antioxidants in animal production for over ten years. She runs a poultry research farm in where she has conducted numerous studies with organic versus inorganic selenium, and talked about her findings at Lallemand’s International Selenium Yeast Seminar held last year in Grenaa, Denmark. She described positive effects of the organic selenium source on performance, noting improvements in average weight gain, feed conversion ratios, skin elasticity and feathering.
She also reported additional evidence that selenium yeast supplementation in broiler breeders and in layers improves hatchability, egg quality (color) and antioxidative properties, including increases in selenium content, Vitamin E content and GSH-Px (glutathione peroxidase) enzymatic activity.
In summing up her research, Roch noted the following benefits to providing organic selenium yeast in poultry diets:
- Modern production practices lead to anti-oxidant deficiency in poultry.
- Organic selenium (Selenium yeast) is more bioavailable that inorganic selenium.
- Selenium yeast supplementation improves broiler, breeder and layer performances.
- Selenium yeast supplementation increases resistance to cellulitis and improves maternal immune transfer.
- Selenium yeast supplementation improves fertility and hatchability.
- Selenium yeast supplementation increases egg selenium content and improves egg conservation
|