Feasibility of intrinsic labeling of poultry meat with stable isotope of selenium (74Se) for use in human metabolic studies.

Sixteen day-old cockerel broiler-type chickens were placed on a simplified, corn-soybean meal broiler starter ration. Each chick was gavaged on 12 separate days over a growth period of 42 days with solutions of Na2SeO3 (control group) or Na74SeO3 (test group). The animals were killed on the 43rd day and the concentrations of the stable isotopes 74Se and 76Se were determined in meat, skin and liver samples using the method of radiochemical neutron activation analysis. We found that significant enrichment of 74Se occurred in the tissues of test animals as compared with the controls and that the degree of enrichment achieved was sufficient to allow use of these chickens in human feeding experiments designed to investigate bioavailability of dietary selenium employing the method of stable isotopes and fecal monitoring.