Effect of Oral Administration of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Germ, Eruca sativa Mill. Seed Oils and their Mixture on Semen Evaluation of V-line Rabbit Bucks

Sabrin A. Morshedy, Mohamed Basyony, Ahmed Abdelmodather, Soliman A. Zahran and Mohamed A. Hassan

Background and Objective: Different natural feed additives have been used to maintain semen quality characteristics of rabbit bucks at heat stress. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of administration of vegetable oils on the semen quality of male rabbits.Materials and Methods: Twenty adult V-Line rabbit bucks 6-7 months old, with average initial body weight (BW) 2792.40±66.39 kg were randomly distributed into four experimental groups (n = 5). The control group administered with 1.0 mL of distilled water, the second group received rocket seed oil (0.3 mL kg^–1 b.wt., Rocket Seed Oil (RSO)), the third group received wheat germ oil (0.3 mL kg^–1 b.wt., Wheat Germ Oil (WGO)) and the fourth group received 0.15 mL of RSO and 0.15 mL of WGO kg^–1 b.wt., mixture. The rabbits were given oils orally once daily for 8 weeks under summer conditions (27.50°C and 76% relative humidity). Results: Feed intake of rabbits decreased (p = 0.0001) with orally received Rocket Seed Oil (RSO) and didn’t differ with Wheat Germ Oil (WGO) or their mixture compared to the control group. Body weight change was tended to increase in rabbits received RSO compared to the control group. The treatments with oils significantly improved semen quality compared to the control group. Conclusion: The oral administration of RSO, WGO and their mixture improved semen quality characteristics under summer conditions induced heat stress.

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