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blood selenium concentration of adult emperor geese, paired
with the positive slope for the relationship between selenium
and GSH peroxidase, implies that adults have recently, perhaps
on their wintering and staging areas, experienced selenium
exposure in excess of the optimum.
We cannot compare the relationship that we found between
selenium in the blood and GSH peroxidase in plasma of em-
peror geese with controlled experimental studies in mallards
because concentrations of selenium in blood were not reported
in the mallard studies. However, the activities of GSH per-
oxidase were lower in emperor geese than in mallards exposed
to selenium, while GSSG reductase activities were higher in
emperor geese. Our findings regarding GSSG reductase agree
with earlier experimental studies because we found no signif-
icant relationship between the activity of the enzyme and the
selenium concentration in the blood within the three groups
of geese. The activity of GSSG reductase in plasma of emperor
goose goslings was higher than GSH peroxidase activity,
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plasma of adult emperor geese was considerably greater than
the activity in adult mallards fed selenium [8]. Species-related
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The positive relationship that we found between plasma
GSH peroxidase activity and selenium concentrations in whole
blood of emperor geese indicates that GSH peroxidase activity
is a useful biomarker for early selenium-induced effects in this
wild population and suggests that individuals with the highest
selenium levels are experiencing oxidative stress. The temporal
differences that we found in blood selenium concentrations
agree with an earlier study suggesting that emperor geese are
exposed to higher levels of selenium on their wintering and
staging areas in the marine environment than on their breeding
grounds. Although marine birds may tolerate greater selenium
exposure than freshwater birds, the finding of high selenium
concentrations in the blood of incubating female emperor geese
suggests the need to evaluate additional parameters of sele-
nium-induced oxidative stress and to study the effect of se-
lenium exposure on reproductive success in this reduced pop-
ulation.
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Acknowledgement—We thank C.R. Ely, A.C. Fowler, K.D. Kriese,
D.M. Mather, M. McCallister, J.A. Morse, E. Seckinger, B.E. Short,
J. Tulik, and schoolchildren from Chevak, Alaska, for field assistance
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analysis of blood.
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