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Updated: Aug 12, 2026

Xenopus laevis as a Model to Identify Translation Impairment
Published on: September 27, 2015
Low selenium status and cot deaths
1University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
Abstract:
Selenium is a naturally occurring trace element essential to the health of many mammal and avian species. Low levels of selenium are evidenced by a variety of symptoms, mainly in the cardiac and musculo-skeletal systems. Tasmania and South Island, New Zealand, both have low soil levels of selenium and high rates of cot death. Evidence is presented to suggest that these may be related via a pathway involving maternal selenium status during gestation or low selenium content in mothers' milk.
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