Determination of optimal dietary selenium levels by full expression of selenoproteins in various tissues of broilers from 22 to 42 d of age

The current NRC dietary selenium (Se) requirement (0.15 mg/kg) of broilers from 22 to 42 d of age is primarily based on a previous study reported in 1986, which might not be applicable to modern classes of rapidly growing broilers. The present experiment was conducted to determine the optimal dietary Se level for meeting metabolic and functional Se requirements of broilers fed a corn-soybean meal diet from 22 to 42 d of age. A total of 336 Arbor Acres male broilers at 22 d old were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 treatments with 7 replicates and fed a basal corn-soybean meal diet (control, containing 0.014 mg Se/kg) and the basal diet supplemented with 0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40, or 0.50 mg Se/kg from Na₂SeO₃ for 21 d. The results showed that the Se concentrations in plasma, liver, kidney, pancreas, breast and thigh muscles, the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in plasma, liver and kidney, the mRNA expression levels of Gpx4, selenoprotein (Seleno) h and Selenou in liver, Selenop and Selenoh in kidney, and the protein expression levels of GPX4 in the liver and kidney of broilers were affected (P < 0.05) by supplemental Se level, and increased quadratically (P < 0.05) with the increase of supplemental Se level. The estimates of optimal dietary Se levels were 0.10 to 0.49 mg/kg based on the fitted broken-line or asymptotic models (P < 0.0001) of the above Se concentration indices, and 0.08 to 0.37 mg/kg based on the fitted broken-line, quadratic or asymptotic models (P < 0.007) of the above selenoprotein expression indices. These results indicate that the optimal dietary Se levels would be 0.49 mg/kg to support the maximum Se concentrations and 0.37 mg/kg to support the full expression of selenoproteins in plasma and various tissues of broilers fed a corn-soybean meal diet from 22 to 42 d of age.