Dietary supplementation of pumpkin seed oil and sunflower oil along with vitamin E improves sperm characteristics and reproductive hormones in roosters.

This study evaluates the effects of pumpkin seed oil and sunflower oil along with vitamin E on the reproductive characteristics of aged roosters. Thirty Ross breeder roosters (45-wk-old) were assigned into 6 groups (5 birds/group) with the following diets: 1) control group (basal diet), 2) basal diet with 2% pumpkin seed oil as omega-3 fatty acid (PSO group), 3) basal diet with 2% sunflower oil as omega-6 fatty acid (SFO group), 4) basal diet with 200 mg/kg vitamin E (Control + vitE group), 5) basal diet and 2% pumpkin seed oil along with 200 mg/kg vitamin E (PSO + vitE group) and 6) basal diet and 2% sunflower oil along with 200 mg/kg vitamin E (SFO + vitE group). Roosters were fed on the experimental diets for 60 d and different characteristics of sperm characteristics including routine semen analysis and several sperm functional tests in every 20 d were examined. Reproductive hormones were also evaluated in 0 d and at the end of the trial. Semen volume and morphology were not affected by any of the diets. The roosters fed with pumpkin seed oil + vitE showed the higher percentage of sperm concentration, total motility, progressive motility, viability and membrane integrity and the lower lipid peroxidation (P ≤ 0.05). The group 5 (PSO + vitE) had numerically the lowest sperm with fragmented DNA (DNA Fr+) at 0 of the experiment and sperm with non-fragmented DNA (DNA Fr-) was lowest in group 6 (SFO + vitE) on da 40 the experiment. Testosterone level was not affected by the experimental diets (P > 0.05), however other hormones (LH and FSH) were affected. Based on the results, the supplementation of aged roosters' diet with pumpkin seed oil + vitE improves reproductive performance which can be an appropriate strategy to preserve the reproductive performance of aged roosters.

Effect of different levels of bioplex manganese along with probiotics and multi-enzymes on performance and immune system indices of broilers.

To investigate the effect of different levels of bioplex manganese along with probiotics and multi-enzymes on the performance and immune system of broilers, 640 one-day-old male chicks of the Ross 308 strain were reared and the data analysed in a 4 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment with four levels of bioplex manganese (0, 60, 72 and 84 mg per kg of diet), two levels of Parsilact probiotic (0 and 200 mg per kg of diet) and two levels of Combo multi-enzyme (0 and 1,000 mg per kg of diet) in a completely randomized design with 16 experimental treatments, 4 replicates and 10 chickens per replicate during a period of 42 days. The results showed that the performance of the broiler chickens in the diets containing 72 and 84 mg bioplex manganese along with probiotics and multi-enzymes had the greatest difference compared to the control (p < .05). Compared to the control with 0 mg/kg manganese; the bursa of Fabricius weight was greater in chickens fed diets containing additional manganese (p < .05). The concentration of antibodies produced against Newcastle disease virus, as well as the concentrations of IgG, IgM and total immunoglobulins produced against SRBC, were highest in the group fed a diet containing 84 mg manganese along with probiotics and multi-enzymes (p < .05). The results show combining additional manganese with probiotics and multi-enzymes in chicken diets leads to better performance as well as a stronger immune system of chickens.