Effect of Selenium Supplementation on the Selenium Content in Muscle and Liver of Finnish Pigs and Cattle

Low selenium intake was considered to be a potential nutritional risk for the whole Finnish population. The Expert Working Group on Selenium recommended in 1983 that the selenium content of Finnish feed and food should be increased by adding selenium to fertilizers. The primary purpose of this action was to increase the selenium content of cereal grains from 0.01 to 0.1 mg/kg of dry matter. The limit was clearly often exceeded. Therefore, the Working Group decided in spring 1990 to decrease the selenium supplementation level so that only one level of 6 mg/kg is used in multinutrient general fertilizers. The highest selenium contents were reached in 1989, when selenium in pig muscle was 0.30 ± 0.06 mg/kg of wet wt, in pig liver 0.73 ± 0.13 mg/kg of wet wt, in cattle muscle 0.21 ± 0.05 mg/kg of wet wt, and in cattle liver 0.51 ± 0.18 mg/kg of wet wt. After 1989 the selenium contents gradually decreased. In 1995 the selenium content in pig muscle was 0.15 ± 0.03 mg/kg of wet wt, in pig liver 0.52 ± 0.06 mg/kg of wet wt, in cattle muscle 0.10 ± 0.02 mg/kg of wet wt, and in cattle liver 0.28 ± 0.05 mg/kg of wet wt.