Comparative Effects of Nano-Selenium and Sodium Selenite Supplementation on Blood Biochemical Changes in Relation to Growth Performance of Growing New Zealand White Rabbits

The present study was conducted to compare the effect of Nano-selenium (Nano-Se) and sodium selenite (SSe) on growth performance, antioxidative status and blood biochemical changes of growing New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits. The total number of five-week old rabbits were divided randomly into three groups (each of 24, 12 males and 12 females) were used. The first group was served as a placebo; in groups 2 and 3, each rabbit was intramuscularly injected once a week with 4ml solution of Nano-Se or SSe, respectively. The solution was adjusted to provide 30 mu g Se/kg/live body weight. Growth trial lasted for two months. Results demonstrated that rabbits with Nano-Se treatment showed a higher rate in the total gain and daily gain weight compared to SSe and the control. Nano-Se and SSe showed lower AST and ALT activities than the control, with a high advantage for SSe. Both Nano-Se and SSe additives increased significantly GR and TAC activities compared to the control, the upper hand recorded by Nano-Se. MDA activity recorded a similar trend using Nano-Se with significant decrement than other groups. TC, LDL, VLDL, triglycerides, and phospholipids decreased significantly due to Nano-Se group than the others. Nano-se and SSe recorded a highly significant HDL, and triglycerides and VLDL than control, respectively. T3 and T4 levels were elevated dramatically in Nano-se group, also feed efficiency, feed conversion ratio and daily gain were improved. It can be concluded that Nano-se supplementation caused positive changes in blood constituents which improved growth performance of growing NZW rabbits more than SSe.