Chronic toxicity of selenium with special reference to its teratogenic effect in some experimental animals

Selenium is nowadays widely used in various purposes.It enters in many manufactures e.g.electric wires,glass manu-facture , paint plastics, rubber industries ... etc. This may leadto industrial selenium poisoning regarding human beings.Itmay be hazardously poisonous through passage of the waste pro-ducts of these industries which may reach water intakes forhuman and animai donsumption. It may also be absorbed by thesoil in the viscinity of such workshops and thus be poisonousthrough vegetable consumption. More recent it became evidentthat heavier and more frequent administrations of seleniumthan recommended is likel~ to occur inorder to increase andimprove the quality of flocks and this may lead to poisoningof the -an i rna Ls .. The recent extensive research confirmed thenutrional essentiality of selanium. Seleniferous grains arenow regarded as of high nutritional value for animals thanthose containing no selenium besides their importance in com-Q, a tin g s e 1 e n i u m de f i c i e n c y d i sea s e s .The present study deals with investigating differentaspects of the action of selenium dioxide on goats, as a meansof realizing its action on amimals thus preventing its toxi-city when they are exposed to it and its possible resultingteratogenic effect if any.