PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL ROLE OF VI TAMIN-E AND SELENIUM IN THEANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND HEALTH

As an introduction the author briefly surveys the connections of the f eeding nutrition and the diseases, and the komplex defence of the orga nism against peroxide-burden In case of several vitamins it has been d iscovered, that in addition to their literal function known up to the present, they have a particular, almost drug-effect in an increased do se. The article introduces the recently discovered immunostimulant rol e of the carotinoids. The damage of the cell-membrane as a result of l ipid-perosidation in the individual organs, or animal spe cies appears in different clinical-pathological diagnoses. There are some of these diseases which could be prevented by giving selenium alone, others co uld be treated only by dosing selenium and vitamin E together, or sole ly with feeding vitamin E. The most important diseases belonging to th e subject are the reproduction disorders, the deformation of the liver , the blood, the brain, the capillaries and the pancreas, and the myop athies. According to the examinations of REFFETT et al. (1988) the sel enium has an immunostimulanl effect - independent of the vitamin E-in marginally supplied calves (0.03 mg/feed kg). In their case the defenc e has appeared as increased level of glutation-peroxidase and IgM in t he plasma following the artificial infection with virus IBR (infectiou s bovine rhinotracheitis). The feeding of the host animal also directl y effects the pathogens. BECK et al. (1995) have inoculated coxsackiev irus B3 into mice supplied insufficiently with selenium and/or vitamin E, and the virus has converted into virulent and its generic material has changed in many spots in comparison with the originally inoculate d virus. The therapeutic index of the selenium is limited, and even th e fivefold of the recommended dose to be mixed into the feed (0.1 ppm) can be toxic. In this way it can cause clinical deformations similar to the foot-and-mouth disease (epizootic stomatitis) on the coronet of pigs.