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A study of nutritional myopathy in weaner sheep
Author(s) -
ALLEN J. G.,
STEELE P.,
MASTERS H. G.,
D'ANTUONO M. F.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
australian veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1751-0813
pISSN - 0005-0423
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-0813.1986.tb02862.x
Subject(s) - myopathy , selenium , subclinical infection , medicine , endocrinology , glutathione peroxidase , alpha tocopherol , physiology , vitamin e , biology , biochemistry , chemistry , antioxidant , oxidative stress , superoxide dismutase , organic chemistry
SUMMARY The effectiveness of various treatments upon, and pathological and biochemical changes in, ovine weaner nutritional myopathy were observed. Clinical myopathy was already apparent in the sheep at the start of the study, and they were fed decreasing amounts of a ration containing low levels of selenium and α‐tocopherol, and periodically deprived of water. In spite of this management there was a spontaneous remission of the clinical myopathy in the sheep, but a subclinical myopathy was identified in some of the sheep at the end of the trial. The conclusions were that the myopathy was not caused by a low dietary intake of selenium and/or α‐tocopherol alone, that α‐tocopherol was involved in the aetiology, that α‐tocopherol was completely effective and selenium possibly partially effective in treating it, and that the condition may be a Type II muscle fibre disease. Data on plasma creatine phosphokinase and erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activities, and terminal liver selenium and α‐tocopherol concentrations are presented, and their roles in the diagnosis of ovine weaner nutritional myopathy discussed.