Abstract
The effect of vitamin E (1, 000 mg) injected intramuscularly once, twice or three times at 5-day intervals several days before parturition on excretion hours of fetal membrane in mares was examined. In the group with no treatment of vitamin E, the rates of mares with fetal membrane excretion over 60 minutes were 11.1% of the group above 300μg/100 ml of serum tocopherol levels, but 33.3% in the mares below 300μg/100 ml. In the group with vitamin E injection, all mares showing low levels of serum tocopherol below 300μg/100 ml excreted the fetal membrane within 60 minutes, and the hours were significantly (p<0.05) less than the non-treated group. The serum selenium and blood glutathione peroxidase activities of the mares examined were at normal levels, and were not related to the times of fetal membrane excretion.
