Effects of dietary sodium butyrate on reproduction in adult breeder roosters

Sodium butyrate (SB) is a novel feed additive in poultry production. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of SB on the reproductive performance of the rooster. Three hundred 22-week-old roosters were randomly divided into 2 dietary treatment groups of 6 pen replicates, a basal diet (control) group and a basal diet with SB gruop. The supplementation of SB was carried out through 23 consecutive weeks from 22 to 45 weeks of age. During this period, the live-weight was measured weekly while semen samples were collected every two weeks. Three time-points were chosen for analysis (30, 35 and 45 weeks of age). The results showed that SB improved the semen volume and sperm motility at 30 and 35 weeks of age (P < 0.05), increased the sperm concentration and decreased the abnormal sperm percentage during the whole experimental period (P < 0.05). These improvements were accompanied by increased testosterone levels at 30 and 35 weeks of age (P < 0.05). Moreover, dietary supplementation of SB also increased the enzyme activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) at 30 and 35 weeks of age and superoxide dismutase (SOD) at 45 weeks of age in the testes of roosters (P < 0.05). These results suggest that SB may promote testicular growth by increasing the antioxidant capacity and testosterone hormone secretion in adult roosters.

Vitamin C and vitamin E supplementation alleviates oxidative stress induced by dexamethasone and improves fertility of breeder roosters

This study was conducted to determine the effect of supplemental dietary vitamin C (VC) and vitamin E (VE) on improving semen quality and antioxidative status in breeder roosters challenged with dexamethasone (DEX). 120 45-week-old Lveyang black-boned breeder roosters were divided into 5 experimental treatments, including negative group, positive group, and three trial groups, which were fed basal diet supplemented with 300mg/kg VC, 200mg/kg VE, or 300mg/kg VC and 200mg/kg VE (VC+VE). At 49 weeks of age, the positive control and trial groups were subcutaneously injected 3 times every other day with DEX 4 mg/kg body weight, the negative control group was sham injected with saline. At 50 weeks of age, average daily feed intake of birds challenged with DEX significantly increased (P<0.05), however, serum testosterone significantly decreased (P<0.05). Dietary supplementation of VC+VE enhanced serum testosterone and sperm motility remarkably (P<0.05). There were no differences in sperm viability between the DEX-treated groups. During the post-stress recovery period (52 weeks of age), dietary supplementation of VE and VC+VE significantly increased the body weight of birds under oxidative stress (P<0.01). VC, VE, and VC+VE groups had greater sperm viability than control group (P<0.01). Additionally, there was a decrease in the semen plasma malondialdehyde content (P<0.05) of the VC and VC+VE groups, and in the testicular malondialdehyde content (P<0.01) of the VE and VC+VE groups. In summary, VC, VE, especially their combination alleviate the oxidative stress induced by DEX and are favorable for the fertility of breeder roosters.

Effect of dietary Satureja khuzistanica powder on semen characteristics and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances concentration in testicular tissue of Iranian native breeder rooster

Because of a paucity of information on the effect of Satureja khuzistanica in male chickens, this study was undertaken to determine the influence of dietary S. khuzistanica powder (SKP) on seminal characteristics and testes thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) content in Iranian native breeder rooster. Thirty-six 40-week-old roosters were randomly allotted to 3 equal groups and received either a basal diet without SKP (T1 or control), or a diet containing 20 g/kg (T2) and 40 g/kg (T3) of SKP for 8-week-long experimental period. Semen samples were obtained weekly by abdominal massage to evaluate the seminal characteristics. At the end of the eighth week 18 birds (6 birds per each group) were randomly slaughtered, and sample was taken from right testes for TBARS evaluation. Administration of SKP improved all semen traits, except for sperm concentration. Likewise, TBARS content in SKP treatments did not significantly differ from the control (P>0.05). Seminal volume, live sperm percentage and plasma membrane integrity percentage in SKP-treated groups were higher than the control. Conversely, abnormal sperm percentages reduced in SKP-treated groups (P<0.05). Plasma membrane integrity in experimental treatments was significantly higher than the control in 2nd, 3rd and 7th weeks. However, at 6th and 8th weeks only T3 treatment was significantly different from the control. Notably, there was an increase in total sperm concentration in SKP-treated groups in compared to the control birds. In conclusion, this study indicated that addition of SKP in rooster diet improves sperm quality and also reduces their sperm membrane lipid peroxidation, which may lead to higher fertilization rate.