The selenium conundrum
OPINION: When Les Hailes was named third form dux at St Kevin's College in Oamaru in 1944 his parents were aghast.
It says that selenium deficiency has long been a silent threat to livestock productivity and animal wellbeing across the country due to New Zealand’s selenium-deficient soils. From poor growth rates to compromised immunity and fertility in livestock, the production consequences are costly.
Inovata supplies veterinarians with a range of treatments designed for New Zealand’s farming conditions. Through working with veterinarians Inovata developed a single mineral selenium topical trace element treatment for dairy, beef and deer.
Inovata general manager Steve Judd says Inovata Selenium Pour-On is the only selenium-specific pour-on for dairy, beef cattle and deer available in the New Zealand market – filling a need for strategic supplementation of this critical trace element.
“Simple to use selenium pour-on treatment options, which were once a prevalent tool, have been unavailable in New Zealand for several years, leaving veterinarians and their farmer clients with few convenient solutions to address this key driver of animal health,” Judd says.
vets and their farming clients, and they said they were seeing seleniumdeficient stock and asked us to look at developing a pour-on to add to the tools they could prescribe. We listened and brought Selenium Pour-On back.
“Being a topical product, it is easy to use in cattle and deer which can be difficult to inject or treat orally, or for stock on run-off blocks where farmers can’t supplement via water supply, or where prills in fert were just not doing enough across all stock.
“Inovata Selenium Pour-On is ideal for setting up dairy and beef youngstock as it can be easily and effectively applied to match their changing growth rates and protect them as they grow.”
In trial work on beef cattle Selenium Pour-On elevated selenium levels six weeks after treatment. The product has nil meat and milk withholding, enabling it to be used in lactating and pregnant dairy cows and animals that may be sent for slaughter.
“It has been developed to be easy for farmers to work into their stock programmes. For example, Selenium Pour-On can also be used as frequently as once every 3 weeks. This gives farmers the flexibility to fit selenium supplementation around their regular drenching and weighing programmes. It is a simple, reliable way to boost selenium levels, especially around critical times like mating and protecting young cattle.”
The product is formulated to provide the ideal dose for treatment of selenium deficiency – 0.15 mg Se per kg in cattle, 0.3 mg Se per kg in deer, regardless of the weight range of the animal.
“This makes it a good tool for vets to address selenium deficiency and selenium responsive diseases in cattle and deer,” says Judd.
“From a farmer’s point of view Selenium Pour-On is also cost effective. If all you require is selenium supplementation it is cheaper to use a product with only selenium in it because you are not paying for minerals that you may not necessarily need.”
Judd says it is important that farmers work with their veterinarian on the best way to supplement selenium on their farm and what best fits their situation and the stock class to be treated.
