Blood metabolites concentrations in response to Selenium and chromium supplementation in ewes

Th is study was carried out to examine the impact of selenium-methionine (Se-Met) and chromium-methionine (Cr-Met) supplements on blood metabolites of Baluchi ewes around parturition. Th e following treatments were allotted randomly to 40 multiparous Baluchi ewes (53.9 ± 1.15 kg of body weight (BW)) from 5 weeks prior to parturition to 5 weeks after parturition: (1) control; (2) control plus 5 mg Se-Met/kg dry matter (DM); (3) control plus 3 mg Cr-Met/kg DM; and (4) control plus 5 mg Se-Met and 3 mg Cr-Met/kg DM (Se-Cr-Met) of concentrate diet. Th e experimental design was completely randomized block design with 5 replica in each treatment-block arrangement. Serum glucose was decreased during pre-partum compared with post-partum glucose levels (P 0.05). Se-Met and/or Cr-Met supplementation led to decreased average serum cholesterol of the ewes (P 0.05). Moreover, at 1 week prepartum, serum urea exhibited its highest level throughout the experiment and Cr-Met-fed animals had the lowest urea content among the experimental groups (P= 0.01). In conclusion, serum metabolites were affected by parturition and dietary supplements.