The Effects of dietary Lycopene Supplementation from Lycopersicum esculentum on semen quality of West African dwarf Bucks

Abstract

West African dwarf (WAD) bucks are the most raised goats for meat in the Southwestern part of Nigeria and it is associated with low productivity. This initiated efforts towards improving semen quality with known natural antioxidant such as lycopene present in some fruits. Tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) is one of the most abundant source of lycopene and the most readily available in our locality. Thirty sexually matured WAD bucks were randomly allotted into five treatments in a completely randomized design. Treatment A was the negative control (no supplement), B - the positive control with pure lycopene while C, D, E were fed 1.0, 1.5, 2.0g tomato powder per kg feed respectively. The duration of the experiment was ninety days. Semen was collected with artificial vagina (AV) at 30days intervals.  The result showed that the length of administration had significant (p<0.05) effect on semen volume and sperm concentration. The higher the inclusion of the tomato powder the higher (p<0.05) the semen volume, sperm concentration, sperm motility and morphological normal spermatozoa. The study showed positive effect of tomato powder supplementation on semen characteristics and that it could be used continuously at 1.5g/ kg feed for as long as 90days.