Selenium in Caprine feeding, its transference to the milk and relation with other minerals

The experiment was performed in the campus of the State University of Alagoas, in Santana do Ipanema, in the semi-arid region of Northeast Brazil. This work is aimed at studying the transferences of Se from animals’ food to milk in various levels of offers and its correlations with Ca, P, Mg and soluble Fe. The work also analyzed the somatic cells counts, total bacteria count and chemical composition of milk: Fat, total soluble solids, lactose and proteins. Eight Anglo Nubians animals with a live weight of 60 kg with fifteen days of second lactation were stabled in individual stalls and confined in a completely randomized design, DIC. The animals were fed with 2 kg.day-1 of cactus pear and 0.5 to 1.0 kg.day-1 Tifton hay (Cynodon spp.); concentrated and formed with 333.3 g.day-1 corn and 166.67 g.day-1 soy. The mineral salt was dosed in three treatments using selenium (Se). The treatments were; Treatment 00: at 0.0 mg kg-1 of animal MS.day-1 serving as control group with no supply of mineral salt, and if provided, it came from their own diet; Treatment 01: at 0.1 mg MS.day-1 of animal.kg-1; Treatment 02: at 0.45 mg of animal. kg-1 DM. day-1; and Treatment 03: with 0.90 mg Se animal.kg-1 DM.day-1 (p <0.05) using Tukey test. Key words: Calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, soluble iron.