Turnover of Se in adequately fed chickens using Se‐75 as a tracer

Inorganic selenium (Se) in the form of selenite is applied to livestock to avoid Se deficiency. Selenite is, however, an artificial Se source in diets of unsupplemented chickens. It is therefore hypothesized that organic Se sources, such as Se‐enriched yeast and wheat, could be a more suitable Se supply in animal nutrition, although information on the transition of Se from organic Se sources in fast‐growing chickens is scarce. In this work, chickens were fed a low Se diet (0.27 ± 0.01 mg Se/kg, Se‐enriched yeast) until 20 days of age, after which the Se concentration was increased to maximum concentration allowed by the poultry industry in Europe (0.5 p.p.m. Se). At the same time, a daily contribution of carrier‐free ⁷⁵Se tracer from labelled wheat was administered from day 20 to 27. The chickens showed S and Se homeostasis, as the concentration of S and Se in liver, blood or kidney remained about constant, and steady state of S and Se in the other organs was reached 1 day after the diet shift. The uptake of ⁷⁵Se was readily seen in all organs. After 1 week, the depuration of the ⁷⁵Se tracer was followed, and biological half‐lives and retention in individual organs were determined. The shortest biological half‐lives were observed in major metabolic organs, the liver, kidney and pancreas with half‐lives close to 4 days. There was a significant (p < 0.05) uptake in lung, brain and muscle that reached steady state when the administration of ⁷⁵Se was terminated. The half‐life of ⁷⁵Se in heart was 9 days and 7 days in blood. The longest half‐lives were observed in muscle (12 days), brain and lungs (13 days). All half‐lives were shorter than in Se deplete animals.