Effect of Seasonality and Dietary Moringa oleifera Leaf Meal on the Quality of Spermatozoa of the Pearl Guinea Fowl Cock

Patrick Poku Jr., James Kagya-Agyemang, Fritz Bonsu, William Kwenin and Clement Kyere

Objective: A study was carried out to determine the effect of graded levels of moringa leaf meal and season on spermatozoa characteristics of the Pearl Guinea fowl cock in Ghana. Materials and Methods: Thirty-two (32) cocks and one hundred and twenty-eight (128) hens aged one-day-old were used for the study after been reared to attain sexual maturity. A completely randomized design with a 3 x 4 factorial arrangement was used for the experiment. Data collected were analyzed using General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of Statistical Analysis System (SAS for Windows, version 7) and means were separated by the probability of difference (PDIFF) procedure. Results: Result from this study revealed that, the highest sperm motility occurred in birds fed with the control diet (77.12%) while birds fed with 15% Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) had the lowest sperm motility (55.83%). Semen pH, sperm count and normal spermatozoa increased with increasing dietary moringa leaf meal. Semen pH was higher in birds fed with 15% MOLM (8.00) and lowest in birds fed with the control diet (7.70). Sperm count was higher in birds fed with 15% MOLM (4.63×10⁹ mL) and lowest in birds fed with 9% MOLM (2.33×10⁹ mL). Normal spermatozoa was higher (p<0.05) in birds fed with 15% MOLM (85.42%), whereas, 9% MOLM (74.17%) and the control diet (74.58%) had similar (p>0.05) but significantly lower values for normal sperm. Season had no significant (p>0.05) effect on spermatozoa characteristics except motility and sperm count. Sperm motility was higher (p<0.05) in the dry season (74.09%), whereas minor (67.18%) and major rainy (65.93%) seasons had similar (p>0.05) but significantly lower values for sperm motility. Sperm count was higher (p<0.05) in the major rainy season (4.04×10⁹ mL) and lower in the dry season (1.89×10⁹ mL). There was no significant (p>0.05) effect of moringa leaf meal×season interaction on spermatozoa characteristics. Conclusion: This study concluded that spermatozoa quality and quantity increased with increasing levels of MOLM in the diet of Guinea fowl cocks.

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