Abstract:

The present study was designed to determine the effect of melatonin dietary supplementation 40 mg/kg in adult Ross 308 male chickens 24 weeks concomitantly exposed to oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide (1%) with drinking water for 6 weeks on reproductive performance.Semen were collected at 0, 2, 4, 6 weeks. From the results no significant differences in the volume of ejaculates during the time of hydrogen peroxide treatment, while sperm concentration, mass motility and individual motility show significant decrease during the experimental period as compared with the control group, accompanied with a significant increase in dead and abnormal sperms during the experimental period as compared with zero time. Also, no significant differences in ejaculates volume in melatonin with hydrogen peroxide treatment compared with the hydrogen peroxide group and zero time, administration of melatonin with hydrogen peroxide caused significant increase in sperms concentration , individual motility at the 4th and 6th week and mass motility in 2nd,4th and 6th week compared with hydrogen peroxide group and the experiment period had no significant effects on sperm concentration and mass motility while significant increase appear in individual motility at the 6th week compared with zero time and 2nd week. Melatonin dietary supplementation in roosters exposed to oxidative stress caused significant decrease in percentage of dead and abnormal sperms at 2nd, 4th and 6th week compared with hydrogen peroxide group and there is no significant difference in dead sperms percentage during the experiment period while significant decrease appear at 4th and 6th week in abnormal sperms percentage compared with zero time. Melatonin supplementation alone had no significant effects on ejaculates volumes of compared with zero time and the control group , while melatonin administration caused significant increase in sperm concentration at 4th and 6th week compared with the control group and zero time and 2nd week and cause increase in mass motility and individual motility at 6th week of the experiment compared with the control group and zero time , the results showed that melatonin cause significant decrease in percentage of dead sperms during experiment period compared with the control group and zero time and in abnormal sperms percentage during the experiment period compared with the control group and then significantly decreased at 2nd,4th and 6th week compared with zero time and the control group. It was concluded from this study that the dietary supplementation of melatonin reduce adverse effects that produced by hydrogen peroxide on semen characters in adult male chickens, and dietary supplementation of melatonin alone has a good effects in semen characters in adult male chickens.

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