PS-12 Supplementation with selenium during pregnancy and postpartum to support ewe health
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient known for its beneficial immunomodulatory properties. Se deficiency can increase susceptibility to pathogenic and inflammatory diseases, while also impairing fertility. Sheep raised in Se-deficient geographic regions are most vulnerable to low Se status, and this can have negative health consequences that can reduce farm productivity. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess how Se supplementation affects the innate and adaptive immune responses of ewes consuming a Se-deficient diet. From gestation day 110 (trial day 0) to postpartum day 50 (trial day 80), 110 Dorset-Rideau ewes were fed a Se-deficient diet and supplemented daily with either 0.3 mg inorganic Se, 0.3 mg organic Se, 0.6 mg organic Se, or were not supplemented. Serum samples were obtained on trial days 0, 20, 30, 40 and 80 to evaluate Se concentrations using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The Se-supplemented ewes had significantly higher serum Se concentrations compared to the non-supplemented control ewes throughout the study period (p < 0.05), and the 0.3 mg organic group had significantly higher serum Se compared to the 0.3 mg inorganic group on trial days 40 and 80 (p < 0.05). The ewes received ovalbumin (OVA) antigen immunization on trial day 0 and a second OVA immunization on trial day 10 to assess their anti-OVA IgG antibody response on trial days 0, 10 and 20 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The antibody levels in the ewe serum significantly increased between trial days 10 and 20 (p < 0.05), but no significant treatment effects were observed on day 20. To determine how Se affected the innate immune response, an endotoxin (LPS) immune challenge was performed after weaning on trial day 80. Sera samples obtained 0 and 4 hours post-LPS injection were analyzed for cytokine (IL-6, IL-10, and IFN-γ) and chemokine (CXCL10 and CCL4) concentrations using the Luminex® 200™ platform. All treatment groups had statistically significant increases in the cytokines and chemokines, as well as rectal temperatures, from 0 to 4 hours (p < 0.05). However, no treatment-specific differences were observed. Serum cortisol concentrations were also measured 0 and 4 hours post-LPS injection by ELISA with a notable increase between hours 0 and 4 (p < 0.05), but no treatment differences were detected. Finally, serum biochemical parameters were assessed 0, 4 and 24 hours post-LPS injection to assess oxidative stress and innate immune responsivity. Se treatment had a significant effect on serum albumin, Cl, K, Na, and total protein concentrations (p < 0.05). Overall, organic Se supplementation was most effective for maintaining or increasing serum Se concentrations, however, no treatment differences in immune function were observed. This knowledge can be used by the sheep industry to optimize ewe Se-supplementation protocols.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".