الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 158 |  |  |
| | | from | 158 | | |
Abstract
Therefore, aim of this study is to study the effect of oral administration of whole extract from Moringa oleifera at levels of 0, 60 and 120 mg/head for 21 days on performance and semen characteristics of rabbit bucks. Total of 21 adult New Zealand rabbit bucks having live body weight of 2304-2750 g/h and at six months of age were divided into three similar groups (7 animals in each) and allowed to acclimatize for 7 days in their respective cages. Bucks in the 1st group were given 3 ml sterile distilled water (Control, G1) at the same times of treatments in other groups. Bucks in the 2nd and 3rd groups were given 3 ml distilled water containing 60 (G2) or 120 mg (G3) from whole extract of Moringa oleifera (each capsule contained 500 mg whole plant powder, Dynamic Health Co., USA). Bucks in all groups were treated as daily oral administration for 21 days. All bucks were fed commercial complete feed diet (16% CP and 2850 Kcal/kg diet energy) and kept under the same managerial and climatic conditions. Also,27 mature rabbit does were used for fertility rate. Semen was collected twice a week for 8 weeks as a collection period. Immediately after collection, the ejaculates were evaluated for determination of semen volume with gel, semen pH value and mass motility . Percentages of progressive sperm motility, live sperm, curled spermatozoa at 50 mOsmol/l and sperm abnormality, and sperm cell concentration. Total sperm output/ejaculate was calculated and examination of the acrosome status was carried out. Semen collected from the experimental groups or from control bucks and extended with 0, 2 or 4 mg MOE was preserved at cool temperature and daily evaluated for motility, livability and abnormality of spermatozoa. Conclusion : The current findings suggested that moringa oleifera extract at a level of 60 mg/h as oral administration for 21 days has significant value in improving the antioxidant status and could serve as a supportive treatment in the nutritional management to improve semen production of rabbit bucks, and consequently increasing reproductive performance of rabbit does mated by this semen. In addition, semen could be maintained for 4-5 days at cool temperature in good qulity when it was collected from bucks treated with 60 mg/h or added at a level of 2 mg to control semen extender.