Diets Trace mineral premixes

Gross necropsy lesions of a selenium deficiency are identical to those of a vitamin E deficiency (NRC, 1994) and include exudative diathesis and myopathy of the gizzard. Paleness and dystrophy of the skeletal muscles (white muscle disease) are also common. The incidence and degree of selenium deficiency may be increased by environmental stress. Selenium is generally included in trace mineral premixes. Common sources for supplementation of poultry diets are sodium selenite and sodium selenate. Selenium yeast is also used in conventional diets. 

Table 5.14. Composition of a trace mineral premix to provide the NRC (1994)-estimated trace mineral requirements in chicken grower and layer diets when included at 5kg/t.

A total of 196 composite milk samples from seven Holstein cows have been analyzed (20). The samples have been collected for 28 days, consecutively, beginning on the seventh day after calving. Cows were fed a ration containing corn silage, Timothy hay, commercial concentrate mixture (corn, barley, alfalfa meal, beet pulp, and CaCOs), trace minerals, and vitamins premix, and soybean meal provided 48% of total CP of the diet. The average BW of the cows was 552 kg. Animals were fed twice daily ad libitum and always had access to drinking water. Three of the examined cows had been healthy, with SCC lower than 137,000 cells/ml. One cow had been mastitic during the entire experimental period—the measured SCC varied from 204,000 to 11,876,000 cells/ml. Three cows had mastitic and healthy periods (SCC between 80,000 and 4,737,000 cells/ml). 

A filler material which is mixed with some of the minerals and/or vitamins required in a diet. The mix, which is sometimes called a premix, makes it easier to measure the correct amounts of the trace nutrients providing that they are homogenously distributed in the carrier material. 

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