Effect of oral fish oil supplementation on fresh and frozen ram semen quality and subsequent fertilization rates in mature ewes [electronic resource].

Includes references.

Twenty heathy crossbred rams (1/2 finnish landrace x 1/2 rahmani) were used to study if fish oil supplementation would improve fresh and frozen semen characteristics and fertility. Animals were divided into four similar groups of 5 rams each and were fed on the same diet for a preliminary period of two weeks.Treatment groups 1, 2 and 3 received a daily oral dose of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 ml of fish oil contained a minimum of 50% docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), respectively, for 12 weeks, however, group 4 served as control. Thereafter, all rams were fed only their basic requirement for subsequent three weeks. The results showed that the ejaculate volwne, sperm cell concentration, sperm motility and live sperm percentage were increased (P<0.05) and the percentage of sperm abnonnalities was reduced (P<0.05) in the semen collected from fish oil treated groups compared to that of control group during treatment period. Seminal plasma total protein, total cholesterol and alkaline phosphatase during treatment tend to be numerically higher than those of control group and pre-treatment period, however, total lipid decreased during treatment and post-treatment compared to that of control diet rams but the differences among groups were not significant. Progressive motility of frozen-thawed semen of rams treated with mid (01) and high dose (03) of fish oil was significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of control and low dose groups. Conception rate for sixty ewes cervically inseminated at natural estrus with frozenthawed semen of fish oil treated rams was higher (G1; 46.7 ; G2; 53.3 and G3; 53.3%; P<0.05) than that of control group (G4, 33.3%). It was concluded that the .addition of 1.0 or 1.5 ml fish oil

Summary in Arabic.

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