SELENIUM AND THRIFT STOCK

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 7

SELENIUM AND THRIFT STOCK

TIISCUSSJNG the impact of i selenium treatment on I iUUhrift in the South Mend, i Dr. J. W. McLean, bead of the veterinary department i art Lincoln College, said at 1 the conference of the New i Zealand Society of Animal Production this week that i over the last few years there had been few outbreaks of i ill-thrift in hoggets that did not respond to selenium or selenium plus an anthelmin- i tic. ft was his view, however, i that most of the response i bed been to selenium. Dr. McLean said that a < similar condition had been ] encountered in the lactating i ewe, and this was also re- ; sponsive to selenium and i selenium and an anthelmintic. But he said that he would i not like to say that selenium : was the final answer to ill- 1 thrift in the South Island. , Recently there had not been the conditions in the late spring that were associated with ill-thrift in unweaned lambs. Over the last two years, he | said, it had been noted that there had been significant growth responses to selenium on clover and some of the grasses, but not on lucerne. Professor I. E. Coop, head of the animal science department at the college, said that last autumn had been one of the best there had ever been for growth. It had been as a result one of the best flushing seasons for many years but on the other hand at the last lambing throughout Canterbury there had been an abnornially high proportion of dry ewes. Was there any relationship, he asked, between the uptake of selenium and rapidly growing grass in the autumn? Dr. G. W. Butler, senior principal scientific officer at the Plant Chemistry Division

of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Palmerston North, said that he might expect that selenium content would be low in rapidly growing pasture, but in saying that he was speculating. It was, however, a plausible proposition. Dr. A, E. Henderson, head of the wool department ait the college, asked whether breed differences had been noted in dry ewe incidence. On one of the college farm units, he said, there had been a quite spectacular difference last season. For one breed thh proportion of dry ewes had been about 2 to 3 per cent, with the percentage about 15 for other breeds. Mr W. J. Hartley, senior lecturer in veterinary medicine at the Sydney Veterinary School and formerly of the Wallaceville animal research station, said that his work with selenium in relation to dry ewes had all been with the Romney.