Effect of Oral Administration and Injection of Selenium and Vitamin E on Performance, Blood Metabolites and Digestibility of Nutrients in Suckling Dalagh Lambs

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of oral administration and tissue injection of selenium and vitamin E on performance, blood metabolites and digestibility of nutrients in suckling Dalagh lambs. Eighteen lambs with 1-2 month age and the average weight of 13±2.7 kg assigned in a completely randomized design with three treatments and six replications. The treatments consisted of 1- control (without selenium and vitamin E), 2- tissue injection (tissue injections of selenium and vitamin E) and 3- oral administration (oral administration of selenium and vitamin E). The duration of the experiment was 84 days. Lambs were weighed every 14 days to evaluate changes in weight. In the first, 21, 42 and 63 days of experiment, blood samples were collected from the vein and samples were transferred to the laboratory. In order to determine digestibility of nutrients, sampling from feces was carried out in the last week of the experiment. The results showed that there was no significant difference between treatments in lambs performance (P<0.05). Iron concentration increased significantly in group receiving selenium and vitamin E compared to the control group (P<0.05). The concentration of triglyceride in injection treatment was significantly higher than that of control and oral administration (P<0.05). The supplementation of selenium and vitamin E in the form of injection and oral administration increased glutathione peroxidase activity in comparison with control group (P<0.05), and the use of selenium and vitamin E in the form of injection and oral administration showed significant difference in triiodothyronine and tetra iodothyronine hormone concentration (P<0.05). Blood glucose concentration increased in injection treatment compared to control and oral administration (P<0.05). The digestibility of nutrients did not show any significant difference among treatments (P<0.05). Overall, the results of this study showed that oral and injection use of selenium and vitamin E did not differ significantly in most of the parameters, and only glucose and triglyceride levels increased in the injection treatment compared to oral administration.