The total selenium level in Austrian soils, cereals and grass samples is rather low in general. This necessitates the addition of selenite to animal feeds in order to meet the requirements, together with other essential elements like Cu, Mn and Zn. The range of selenium and the proportions to other essential elements in commercial feedstuff (Cu, Mn, Zn) is outlined, and fairly constant. Just piglets get more Cu, and chicken more Mn with respect to selenium, than others. Those trace element additions are easily traced in various excrements. Beneath fertilization with selenate, recycling of seleniferous excrements seems to raise the selenium levels, and seems to be an alternative to raise the selenium levels by selenate addition. Some methods for analysis of total selenium and speciation in liquid and solid phases are outlined. In cereals, added selenium gets metabolized largely as selenomethionine. Sequential leaching showed that selenium in grass land soils is preferably bound to the organic humic fraction. Experiments with model columns indicate law vertical mobility of added soluble selenium compounds, due to high retardation within the first 5 cm.
Całkowita zawartość selenu w próbkach gleby, zbóż i traw w Austrii jest raczej niewielka. To powoduje konieczność dodawania do paszy zwierząt selenu i innych pierwiastków, takich jak Cu, Mn i Zn. W pracy omówiono zawartość selenu w paszach, także w stosunku do zawartości innych ważnych pierwiastków (Cu, Mn i Zn). Dodatek tych pierwiastków można łatwo śledzić w odchodach zwierząt. Oprócz nawożenia selenem także stosowanie odchodów zawierających ten pierwiastek wydaje się przyczyniać do wzrostu jego zawartości.