EFFECT OF DURATION OF FEEDING ON SCROTAL CIRCUMFERENCE, SEMEN QUALITY AND SPERM MORPHOLOGY CHARACTERISTICS OF RED BUCKS FED WHOLE COTTONSEED AND COTTONSEED CAKE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.5370Keywords:
red sokoto bucks, treatment diet, semen quality, cottonseedAbstract
A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of duration of feeding on semen quality of Red Sokoto bucks fed whole cottonseed and cottonseed cake. A total of twenty-four (24) healthy Red Sokoto bucks were randomly allocated to six dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. The treatments contained 10, 20 and 30% inclusion levels of either whole cottonseed (WCS) or cottonseed cake (CSC) in diets which were fed to the bucks over a period of 98 days after a 14-day adjustment period. Duration of feeding had significant (P<0.05) effect on sperm morphological abnormalities such as
detached head, coiled tail, free tail, cytoplasmic droplets, dag defects and stunted tail which increased and decrease from the 2nd to 12th week. It was therefore concluded that bucks fed diets with CSC performed better than WCS and that up to 20% of CSC can be fed to breeding bucks whereas WCS should not be fed to breeding bucks except at very low levels (10%) as it negatively affects semen quality of Red Sokoto bucks.
