Enrichment of Lactic Acid Silage Bacteria with Selenium by Growing Cultures in Modified MRS Broth Supplemented with Sodium Selenite

Enrichment of Lactic Acid Silage Bacteria with Selenium by Growing Cultures in Modified MRS Broth Supplemented with Sodium Selenite

Selenium (Se) is a trace element essential for normal cellular function, which has been linked with reduced risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline and thyroid disease in humans. Se deficiency in livestock is associated with white muscle disease, retained placenta, ill-thrift and mastitis. Where Se status or bioavailability from the soil for plants is poor, livestock rely on supplemental Se in their diets either as sodium selenite (inorganic form) or seleno-yeast (organic form). As lactic acid bacteria have been shown to incorporate Se as either organic or elemental (Nano-Se), (Eszenyi et al., 2011) there may be potential to use silage inoculant bacteria to improve the Se status of feed to provide Se requirements to livestock. The aim of this experiment was to examine the growth, uptake of selenium as organic (selenocysteine and selenomethionine), inorganic (selenite and selenate) and Nano-Se by lactic acid bacterial isolates (LAB), which could then be used in future ensiling studies (Lee et al., 2015) to produce high Se silage.