<b>Effect of selenomethionine and vitamin C supplementation on spermatic</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascianimsci.v28i2.644

Abstract

The spermatic morphopathology in the semen of rabbits, fed with rations containing different selenomethionine (SeM) and vitamin C (VC) levels, were evaluated. 125 male rabbits kept individually in cage were used. They were distributed in a completely randomized design with twenty-five treatments and five replications. The following items were evaluated: sperm normality (SN), total pathologies (TP), primary pathologies (PP) and secondary pathologies (SP). An influence of treatments with SeM and VC (p < 0.05) on: TP, PP, SP, bent tail (BT), abaxial tail (AT), free cap (FC), raquetiform head (RH), loose tail (LT), final coiled tail (FCT), distal droplet (DD), proximal droplet (PD), and microcephalic sperm (MS) was observed. Treatments with SeM and VC increased until an intermediate level and later it reduced the rates of: TP, PP, BT, AT, RH, LT and DD. The microcephalic sperm decreased when vitamin C level was increased, demonstrating the antioxidant protection effect on the spermatozoa.