Table 2.

A summary of selected animal studies reporting effects of maternal Se status on immunity of the offspring.

Animal Model	Study Design	Key Findings as Reported by Authors	Reference
Sows/piglets	Sows during late gestation and lactation fed dietary Se level low (0.3 mg/kg) or high (1.2 mg/kg) and subjected to heat stress or not	Colostrum and milk composition from sows fed increasing Se was improved compared to that from low-Se-fed sows Increasing Se intake of sows led to improved piglet preweaning survival, immunoglobulin transfer, and better antioxidant status	[56]
Ewes/lambs	No Se or adequate (4.9 mg Se/wk) or two supranutritional levels (14.7 and 24.5 mg Se/wk) from inorganic or organic sources	Ewes during pregnancy fed supranutritional Se supplementation had increased colostral IgG concentrations Optimal supplementation rate for IgG transfer from ewe to lamb may differ between inorganic and organic sources	[57]
Beef cows/calves	Control cows were fed non-Se-fortified alfalfa hay (5.3 mg Se/head daily plus inorganic Se 3 mg Se/head daily). Medium-Se cows were fed Se-fortified alfalfa hay (27.6 mg Se/head daily) and high-Se cows were fed Se-fortified alfalfa hay (57.5 mg Se/head daily)	Using ovalbumin as a model to examine passive transfer, it was reported that calves born from high-Se cows given of age at 12 h of age an oral dose of ovalbumin had higher serum ovalbumin concentrations across the first 48 h of life compared to calves born from control cows	[55]
Dairy dam/calves	Basal maternal diet with 0.3 mg Se/kg dry matter (DM) plus 0 or 105 mg Se/wk as yeast	Increased serum IgG concentrations persisted up to 60 d of age	[58]
Beef dam/calves	Control and Se-enriched fed dams (Se: 0.525 mg/100 kg of body weight/day)	After three weeks, calves of dams fed Se-supplemented diets had higher serum-Se concentration than in those of control dams Suckling calves had enhanced neutrophil and lymphocyte functions	[60]
Mare/foals	Deficient (0.05 mg Se/kg DM), inorganic with 0.3 mg Se/kg DM, and organic as yeast with 0.3 mg Se/kg DM	Foals from organic group had higher gene expression of interferon gamma and interleukin-2 and lower tumor necrosis factor alpha expression compared with foals in the inorganic group	[65]