Influences of dietary selenium, zinc and their combination on semen characteristics and testosterone concentration in mature rams during breeding season

• Main Authors: Ahad Ghorbani, Mohammad Mehdi Moeini, Manochehr Souri, Hadi Hajarian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2018-01-01
• Series: Journal of Applied Animal Research
• Subjects: Breeding season; sperm; Sanjabi ram; scrotal circumference; testes measurement; testosterone; Se; Zn
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09712119.2017.1406858

This study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary supplementation of organic zinc (Availa®Zn100) and selenium (Availa®Se1000) on semen characteristics, testes measures and serum testosterone concentration. Twenty Sanjabi rams (50.01 ± 5.6 kg) were randomly divided into four equal groups, given the basal diet as control (C) or supplemented with 0.3 mg/kg Se (SE) or 40 mg/kg Zn (ZN) or 40 mg/kg Zn plus 0.3 mg/kg Se (ZS) for 120 days experiment (from July to November). The semen samples and blood samples were collected every 3 weeks and scrotal circumference was measured every 15 days. The results indicated that scrotal circumference and testosterone concentrations did not differ due to treatment (P > .05). In contrast, semen characteristics were affected by ZS supplementation. The sperm density and total sperm number increased (P < .05) in ZS group. In addition, the progressive sperm motility was higher in ZS (P < .05) than those of SE and C groups. It is concluded that ZS treatment can improve semen characteristics, which may result in overall improvement in reproductive performance of treated Sanjabi rams during the breeding season.