Daily Sperm Production, Gonadal and Extra-Gonadal Sperm Reserves of Rabbits Fed Prebiotic and Probiotic Supplemented Diets

Abstract

In a 12-week feeding trial, an investigation was conducted with 32 weaned crossbred rabbits with average weight of 691±61.00g to assess the testicular and epididymal sperm reserves and sperm production of rabbits fed dietary prebiotics (Biotronic®) and probiotics (BIOVET®-YC) at the recommended rates of 4kg/tonne and 500g/tonne respectively. The control diet 1 had neither probiotic nor prebiotic while prebiotic, probiotic and symbiotic (prebiotic + probiotic) were added, at the recommended rates, to diets 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The 32 rabbits were randomly and equally allotted to the diets and housed individually. At the end of the feeding trial, 5 animals per treatment were sacrificed and their reproductive tracts dissected. The testes and epididymides were carefully sampled, weighed and processed. Results showed that the right, left and paired testes weights of the animals were not significantly different among the dietary treatments. However, the testicular sperm reserves were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by the treatments. Sperm reserves in both left and right testicles of animals fed diets 2 and 3 were similar to the control animals but they were significantly (P<0.05) lower than those fed diet 4 containing the combination of prebiotic and probiotic. The epididymal sperm reserves were significantly (P<0.05) higher in rabbits fed prebiotic and symbiotic diets than those fed diet 3 and the control. The daily sperm production and sperm production efficiency were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the treatments with the rabbits on diet 4 recording significantly (P<0.05) highest values (21.29 x10⁶ spermatozoa/ml and 10.80 x10⁶ spermatozoa/ml respectively).This study suggests that prebiotics (Biotronic®) and the combination of pre- and pro- biotics (Biovet®-YC) possess a potential to improve reproductive efficiency of
rabbit bucks.

Keywords: Prebiotics, probiotics, rabbits, sperm reserves, sperm production.