AGE OF PUBERTY AND FERTILITY OF MALE NEW ZEALAND WHITE RABBITS ORALLY ADMINISTERED WITH ROYAL JELLY OR/ AND BEE HONEY | ||||
| Journal of Animal and Poultry Production | ||||
| Article 1, Volume 6, Issue 4, April 2015, Page 201-217 PDF (805.64 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jappmu.2016.52748 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| A. H. Khadr; A. Abdou; A. M. El-Sherbiny | ||||
| Animal Prod. Dept., Faculty Agric., Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| The present study was designed to investigate the effects of royal jelly (RJ) or/ and bee honey (H) on age of sexual puberty, semen quality and fertility of male New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits. Eighty pre-pubertal male NZW rabbits and 80 hybrid nonparous female rabbits were used in the present study. Male rabbits were randomly divided into 4 groups (20 bucks per group), bucks were administered orally with 0.5 mL of a solution/ kg body weight (BW), 3 times weekly for 6 weeks; which contained: 1) water for control (1st group), 2) 0.25 mL bee honey + 0.25 mL water (2nd group), 3) 200 mg royal jelly + 0.5 mL water (3rd group) and 200 mg royal jelly + 0.25 mL honey + 0.25 mL water (4th group). The results of the present study showed that pre-pubertal NZW rabbits received RJ or/ H and showed significantly earlier (P<0.05) puberty age (earlier ages at testis descending into scrotum, separation of penis from sheath, beginning of fighting, first ejaculated sperm, appearance of sperm in testis and epididymis); decrease (P<0.05) of reaction time, increase of ejaculate volume, percentage of sperm progressive motility, sperm-cell concentration and seminal plasma fructose concentration compared to control group. On the other hand, percentages of dead and abnormal spermatozoa increased significantly (P<0.05) for control group compared to the other three groups. Blood plasma concentrations of testosterone and cholesterol increased significantly (P<0.05) for royal jelly or/ and bee honey groups compared with control. Otherwise, plasma activities of aspartate amino transferase (AST) and alanine amino transferase (ALT) differed non-significantly among groups. Rabbit bucks treated with royal jelly or/ and bee honey showed better fertility (higher conception rate and litter size) than control bucks. In conclusion, the results of the present study showed that oral administration of royal jelly or/ and bee honey at any level could be used beneficially to have earlier puberty age, improve semen quality and fertility of male NZW rabbits. This improvement was also mirrored on better liver functions as observed with normal concentrations of AST and ALT. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| rabbit bucks; fertility; bee honey; puberty; Rabbits; royal jelly; puberty semen | ||||
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