Dietary boron supplementation and its impact on testicular function, thyroid activity and serum calcium in rams

Publication date: Available online 11 March 2019Source: Small Ruminant ResearchAuthor(s): Taha Bakr Ibrahim, Ahmed Abdel-Wahab, Ahmed Hashim El-Anwar, Shawky Soliman IbrahimAbstractThe current study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary boron (B) supplementation on testicular function, thyroid activity and serum calcium (Ca) in rams. Therefore, twelve rams (4 months old and 17.6 ± 1.26 kg average body weight) were divided equally into two groups. Rams of control group (CNT group) fed basal ration ad libitum. In the second group (B group), the rams fed basal ration plus 400 mg boric acid (BA)/kg diet. All rams fed their corresponding rations for 4 months. Serum and semen samples were collected and analyzed at different intervals. B increased serum levels of testosterone (T) significantly (P < 0.05) when compared with CNT group. Serum levels of triiodotyrosine (T3) were elevated significantly (P<0.05) with growing of age in both groups. However, the percentage of increase of T3 level at end of the experiment was observed to be higher in B-treated rams than CNT ones. Besides, B induced significant improvement of semen quality when compared with CNT group (P<0.05). Furthermore, there were no significant differences between B and CNT rams on the body weight gain and serum level of Ca. Thus, B is considered potential and useful supplement in ration of rams to improve their testicular and thyroid activities.
Source: Small Ruminant Research - Category: Zoology Source Type: research