Bioavailability to rats of selenium in milk of cows fed sodium selenite or selenited barley.

The nutritional availability of Se to rats in two experimental Finnish milks were compared to that in American milk naturally high in Se. The experimental milks had their Se content increased by feeding cows either sodium selenite (selenited milk) or selenited barley (selenited-barley milk). Weanling male rats were fed a low-Se milk powder diet for 4 weeks followed by continued depletion or repletion with graded levels of Se as sodium selenite (standard) or different milks for 4 weeks. Plasma Se level and plasma and liver glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities were used as criteria of body Se status. The bioavailability of Se was calculated with the slope-ratio method. The Se in the selenited-barley milk was significantly (p less than 0.01) more available than that in the selenited milk when the plasma Se level was the response criterion. On the other hand, the bioavailability of Se from the various milks was not different when plasma or liver GSH-Px activities were used as the response criteria. Overall bioavailability for the selenited milk, selenited-barley milk and American milk was only slightly less than that for the standard (sodium selenite = 1.00), showing that milk is a relatively readily available source of dietary Se.