IMPACT OF SUPPLEMENTATION WITH MILK THISTLE SEEDS AND ROSEMARY LEAVES ON SEMEN QUALITY, ANTIOXIDANTS STATUS AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF RABBIT BUCKS | ||
| Egyptian Poultry Science Journal | ||
| Article 16, Volume 36, Issue 1, March 2016, Pages 279-298 PDF (679.68 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/epsj.2016.33268 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Rawia S. Hamed1; Youssef A. Attila*,2; Abd El-Hamid E. Abd EL-Hamid3; Hossam Shahban1 | ||
| 1Anim. Prod. Res. Instit., Min. of Agric., ARC, Dokki12816, Gizza, Egypt ,**Dep.of Arid Land Agric., Fac. of Meteorology, Environ. and Arid Land Agric., King Abdulaziz Univ., Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia | ||
| 2*Anim. Prod. Res. Instit., Min. of Agric., ARC, Dokki12816, Gizza, Egypt ,**Dep.of Arid Land Agric., Fac. of Meteorology, Environ. and Arid Land Agric., King Abdulaziz Univ., Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia | ||
| 3***Anim. and Poult. Prod. Dep.Fac. of Agric., Damanhour University, Damanhour 22516, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| This experiment aimed at investigating the effects of milk thistle seeds (MTS) and rosemary leaves (RL) at 5 and 10 g/kg diet as feed additives on semen quality, blood metabolites and reproductive performance on rabbit bucks. A total number of 35 male V-line rabbit bucks were distributed randomly into five experimental groups of 7 bucks each. The 1st group, which served as a control, did not supplement with MTS and RL in their basal diet. The 2nd and the 3rd groups were supplemented with MTS at 5 and 10 g/kg in their basal diet, respectively. The 4th and the 5th groups were fed the basal diet supplemented with RL at 5 and 10 g/kg, respectively. The best sperm concentration (SC), total sperm output (TSO), live sperm (LS), total live sperm (TLS) and total motile sperm (TMS) were obtained from bucks fed MTS at 10 g/kg diet followed by RL at 5 g/kg diet. Bucks received MTS 10g/kg diet significantly increased their blood serum testosterone compared to the control and this was associated with a significant increase in the fertility rate of the 10 g MTS group. In addition, RL at 5 g/kg significantly increased blood serum testosterone and fertility compared to the control, but the MTS group had the highest serum testosterone and fertility. In conclusion, MTS and RL at 10 and 5g/kg, respectively, significantly improved antioxidant status and liver markers, which led to a significant increase in semen quality and fertility in rabbit bucks. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Rabbits; milk thistle; Rosemary Leaves; Semen; reproductive; Blood | ||
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