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Research: ATTIA and COLLEAGUES,
Listed in Issue 306
Abstract
ATTIA and COLLEAGUES, 1 Department of Arid Land Agriculture, Faculty of Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia; 2 Animal Production Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, ARC, Dokki, 12816, Gizza, Egypt; 3 Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production, University of Napoli Federico II, 80137, Napoli, Italy. bovera@unina.it ; 4 Animal and Poultry Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, Damanhour, 22516, Egypt investigated the effects of milk thistle seeds (MTS) and rosemary leaves (RL) both at 5 and 10g/kg diet on reproductive performance in rabbit bucks.
Background
The study aimed to investigate the effects of milk thistle seeds (MTS) and rosemary leaves (RL) both at 5 and 10g/kg diet on reproductive performance, semen quality and blood metabolites of rabbit bucks.
Methodology
A total of 35 rabbit bucks were randomly distributed into five experimental groups (7 bucks/group). All the groups were fed the same basal diet. The 1st group (control) did not have MTS and RL in its basal diet. The 2nd and 3rd groups were supplemented with MTS at 5 and 10g/kg, respectively. The 4th and 5th groups were fed the basal diet supplemented with RL at 5 and 10g/kg, respectively.
Results
The sperm concentration (SC), total sperm output (TSO), live sperm (LS), total live sperm (TLS) and total motile sperm (TMS) were significantly greater in the bucks fed MTS at 10 and RL at 5g/kg diet than the control group. Bucks fed MTS at 10g/kg diet had higher fertility than the control. Also, RL 5g/kg group showed higher testosterone and fertility than the control, but the MTS 10g/kg group showed the highest value for both parameters.
Conclusion
In conclusion, MTS and RL at 10 and 5g/kg, respectively, significantly improved the semen quality and the fertility and MTS also increased the economic efficiency of rabbit bucks.
References
Youssef A Attia 1 , Rawia S Hamed 2 , Fulvia Bovera 3 , Abd El-Hamid E Abd El-Hamid 4 , Mohammed A Al-Harthi 1 , Hossam A Shahba 2. Semen quality, antioxidant status and reproductive performance of rabbits bucks fed milk thistle seeds and rosemary leaves. Anim Reprod Sci; 184:178-186. DOI: 10.1016/j.anireprosci.2017.07.014 . Epub Jul 23 2017. Sep 2017.
