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Description: Deficiency of vitamin E or selenium causes nutritional muscular dystrophy, also known as white muscle disease in calves or stiff lamb disease in sheep. It is most common in newborn lambs or calves and the clinical signs will be evident from birth to an age of 4 to 6 weeks. The calves shown here have the typical stiff posture due to the degeneration of muscle fibers (myopathy), in the course of which calcium salts may be deposited among the muscle fibers. Other symptoms include low fertility, poor growth, or paralysis. Animals can die suddenly if the heart muscle is involved. Some recently formed volcanic soils and the glaciated soils of the northeastern USA contain very little selenium. As a result, plants grown on them are seriously selenium deficient, so that animals eating fresh forage, hay, or silage, as all or most of their diet become deficient. In deficient areas, white muscle disease in calves can be prevented by injecting pregnant cows with a sodium selenite-vitamin E (BoSe) injection 4 to 6 weeks pre-partum. Supplemental selenium should also be included in the diet at 0.3 ppm, taking care not to exceed 8.5 ppm, which is toxic.

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