Effects of Replacing Mineral Selenium Supplement with Selenium Nanoparticles on Growth Performance of Dairy Calves

Selenium, as an essential dietary trace element, has an important biological role in the health and growth performance of cows and dairy cows. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of replacing mineral selenium supplement with nano selenium particles in the feeding of suckling calves and its impacts on the growth performance and skeletal structure of suckling calves. The number of 32 newborn Holstein calves with an average body weight of 37.85 ± 4.35 kg in the form of a completely randomized design with 4 treatments (eight calves in each treatment) for 83 days according to the supplemental consumption of milk or drinking water with sources different selenium were placed. Treatments include: 1) inorganic selenium: providing 0.3 mg of selenium per kilogram of dry matter with sodium selenite, 2) low level of nano selenium: providing 0.15 mg of selenium per kilogram of dry matter with nanoparticles prepared from selenium, 3) Medium level of nano-selenium: providing 0.3 mg of selenium per kilogram of dry matter with nanoparticles prepared from selenium, 4) High level of nano-selenium: providing 0.45 mg of selenium per kilogram of dry matter with nanoparticles prepared from selenium. . The results showed that supplementing milk with selenium nanoparticles did not affect the performance of calves during the pre-weaning period, but significantly improved it after weaning compared to calves fed sodium selenite. So the daily gain and feed efficiency in the second period increased secondarily (p < 0.01) and the medium level was the highest