The effect of different energy levels of diet on blood parameters and testicular tissue in sheep

Abstract

Purpose: One of the most important costs of sheep breeding is feed and the concentrated part of the ration. This research was conducted in order to investigate the effect of different rates of concentrate and fodder in lambs. Materials and methods: 27 Lori Bakhtiari male lambs with an average age of 75 days and a weight of 26kg were selected and divided into three treatments and nine replications. Treatment one was 55:45 concentrate to fodder, second treatment was 70:30 and third treatment was 15:85 and feeding was done individually in morning and evening. After the end of the 100-day period, blood sampling was done and all the lambs were slaughtered. The testicles were removed from the scrotum and after measuring the morphometric parameters, the testicular tissue sample with dimensions of 1x1cm was prepared in 10% formalin solution and tissue sections were prepared. Findings: The results showed that the rate of concentrate and fodder made a significant difference in the macroscopic parameters of testicular tissue (P˂0.05). The weight of the testis in the treatment of three lambs decreased. In this treatment, the thickness of the coating of spermatogenic tubes, tube diameter, lumen diameter and tube area decreased. Also, the rate of hematocrit, red blood cells and hemoglobin of this treatment was significantly higher than other treatments (P˂0.05). Conclusion: increasing the percentage of concentrate more than 70% will have a negative effect.

Keywords

•  diet energy
• testicular tissue
• sheep
• testicular parameters
• blood parameters
• lori bakhtiari male lamb