Effect of Dietary Fumonisin B1 on Reproductive Organs and Semen Quality Indices of Breeder Cocks

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the implications of fumonisin B₁(FB₁), a toxic metabolite of Fusarium verticillioides consumed by farm animals, on reproductive organs and semen quality indices of breeder cocks in a sixteen-week feeding trial. Sixty pre-pubertal breeder cocks of about 16 weeks of age were randomly assigned to four diets containing 0.2, 5.2, 10.2 and 15.2 mg FB₁/kg constituting diets 1,2,3 and 4 respectively. At puberty, semen samples were collected from the cocks  for three weeks and evaluated. Subsequently, the cocks were killed by decapitation, their reproductive systems carefully removed, weighed and recorded. The absolute and relative weights of the testes, epididymides and tunica albuginea of the cocks were not significantly(p>0.05) influenced by the dietary FB₁ levels. However, the weights of the left parts of these organs were apparently heavier than those on the right side. The spermatozoa progressive motility, live spermatozoa, motile sperm per ejaculate and mass activity of the semen were significantly(p<0.05) depressed as the dietary FB₁ levels increased. Dietary FB₁did not significantly influence the ejaculate volume, spermatozoa concentration and total spermatozoa output. The live spermatozoa of cocks fed diets 2,3 and 4 were 90.10, 88.57 and 87.25% of those fed the control diet(1) respectively. The mass activity ranged from very turbulent motion for the cocks on control diet to slow motion for those on diet 4. This study revealed that exposure of cocks to be used for breeding purpose to dietary FB₁ higher than 10.2ppm will impair the fertility capacity of their semen.

Keywords: Fumonisin B₁, Reproductive organs, Semen quality, Fertility.