Nutritional Requirements for Gimmizah Males from 2-Calcium | ||||
| Journal of Animal and Poultry Production | ||||
| Article 6, Volume 9, Issue 12, December 2018, Page 481-487 PDF (270.21 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jappmu.2018.41164 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| A. A. Alderey; H. R. Samak | ||||
| Anim. Prod. Res. Inst. Agric. Res. Center, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| This work aimed to estimate the nutritional requirement of calcium under two housing systems for Gimmizah cockerels and its effects on productive, reproductive and physiological performance traits. Seventy two cockerels, 26 weeks age, similar in their weights were divided into two groups, the 1st group was housed in individual cages, while, males in the 2nd group were kept on litter floor. Birds of each group were distributed randomly to three subgroups based on dietary calcium levels (0.3, 0.5 and 0.7%). All birds were kept under the same managerial conditions. - Caged males had significantly heavier final body weight than that of cockerels kept on litter floor. Feed intake of cockerels kept on litter floors was significantly higher than those kept in cages. Daily Ca intake of Gimmizah cockerels increased significantly (P≤0.01) with increasing calcium level in the diet. Cockerels reared in cages produced significantly higher ejaculate volume and abnormal sperm percentage than those reared in floor pens. The highest value of ejaculate volume was achieved due to feeding the cockerels on diet with 0.7% Ca. The highest sperm motility was obtained when cockerels were housed on floor and fed on the diet with 0.5% Ca.Plasma albumin level decreased (P≤0.05) while, plasma globulin level increased (P≤0.01) with increasing dietary Ca level. Feeding cockerels a diet with 0.3% calcium resulted in significant increase in plasma total testosterone compared with those fed diets containing 0.5 or 0.7% Ca. Rearing cockerels on litter floors led to significant increase in plasma level of inorganic phosphorous and lower activity of plasma alkaline phosphatase (P≤ 0.05) compared with those of cockerels kept in cages. Feeding cockerels diet with 0.3% Ca increased total calcium absorption when it was measured as mg/g dry matter compared with those fed diets of 0.5 or 0.7% Ca. -Seminal plasma activity of LDH was significantly higher for cockerels fed diet with 0.3% calcium than those fed 0.5 or 0.7% Ca. Males fed the diet containing 0.5% Ca had higher activity of AST but lower activity of ALT compared with those fed 0.3 or 0.7% Ca diets. -Seminal plasma level of total testosterone was significantly higher (P≤0.05) in cockerels reared on litter floors than that of males kept in cages.- Interaction between dietary calcium level and housing system had significant effect on all seminal plasma parameters. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Gimmizah cockerels; calcium; semen quality; Seminal plasma | ||||
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