Retrospektive Untersuchung der Erythrozyten-Glutathionperoxidase-Aktivitäten von Rinder-Patienten der Klinik für Wiederkäuer

Retrospectively almost 14,000 erythrocytes glutathione peroxidase
(eGSHPx) activities of cattle from the clinic for ruminants of the
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich were geographically mapped.
The eGSHPx is the most important indirect marker for the selenium
supply of mammals. There are significant eGSHPx activity
differences between the singular years. This might be conditional
upon the different weather and therefore different forage plant
growth and inclusion of selenium into the plant tissues.
Furthermore there are significant differences between the
age-groups and sexes: the most considerable difference existed in
the age-group of the heifers and young bulls (100 until 720 days).
The female animals performed considerably worse than their male
contemporaries. In contrast, dairy cows performed better than the
adult bulls. The postcode eGSHPx medians were worked out from the
farm eGSHPx medians. The map primarily contains the region of South
Bavaria (administrative districts of Swabia, Upper Bavaria, and
Lower Bavaria) in Germany. From the map it can be seen that the
selenium supply in the Northern Pre-Alps (as far as Munich) is
marginally adequate whereas the selenium supply in the Bavarian
Tertiary Hill Country (to the north of Munich until the Danube
River) is adequate. Only 0.59 % of the postcodes eGSHPx medians
were deficient (< 60 U eGSHPx/g Hb), 1.53 % low-marginal (≤ 100
U eGSHPx/g Hb) and 2.59 % marginal (≤ 130 U eGSHPx/g Hb). There
were no significant linear correlations between the eGSHPx activity
and other laboratory parameters. Furthermore the findings of the
clinical examination undertaken on admission of cattle with an
eGSHPx activity under 200 U/g Hb from farms with a median above 200
U/g Hb were analysed retrospectively. Two age groups with several
eGSHPx groups were constituted that were each composed half of
selenium deficients and half of control animals: “Calves younger
than 100 days“ (< 200 U/g Hb: n = 200; ≤ 130 U/g Hb: n = 334; ≤
100 U/g Hb: n = 220; < 60 U/g Hb: n = 84) and “cattle 100 days
and older“ (< 200 U/g Hb: n = 226; ≤ 130 U/g Hb: n = 110; ≤ 100
U/g Hb: n = 70). This procedure should guarantee that these animals
did not have a primary or nutritive selenium deficiency (belief:
whole live stock affected by selenium deficiency) but a secondary
selenium deficiency conditional upon the pathology. Significant
results arose in the group of the “calves younger than 100 days“ in
the parameters “posture“ (p = 0.0137 and 0.0355), “nutritional
condition“ (p = 0.0148), and “intestine/abomasum“ (p = 0.0327).
Some significant results arose from the age group of “cattle 100
days and older”, namely of the parameters “runting” (p = 0.0036,
0.0358, and 0.0203), “infectious diseases” (malignant catarrhal
fever, bovine virus diarrhoea/mucosal disease, listeriosis, and
paratuberculosis) (p = 0.0043), and “viral diseases” (malignant
catarrhal fever and bovine virus diarrhoea/mucosal disease) (p =
0.0378). This indicates that only severe and protracted diseases
lead to secondary selenium deficiency whereas acute diseases can be
rebelled by primarily selenium sufficient cattle without sinking
into deficiency at once. The selenium deficient calves’
significantly worse “posture” is probably attributable to the
general physical frailty due to selenium deficiency.