e-ISSN 2231-8542
ISSN 1511-3701
Khumran, A. M., Yimer, N., Rosnina, Y., Ariff, M. O., Wahid, H., Kaka, A., Ebrahimi, M. and Aliyu, A. B.
Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science, Volume 40, Issue 1, February 2017
Keywords: antioxidant, bull, butylated hydroxytoluene, extender, oxidation, semen
Published on: 21 Feb 2017
The effects of adding various concentrations of antioxidant, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) on chilled bull semen for 72 h at 4°C in Bioxcell® (BX), Tris egg-yolk- (TEY) and citrate egg-yolk- (CEY) based semen extenders were studied. Twenty-two ejaculates collected from three bulls, each extended using three extenders with BHT at 0 (control), 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0 mM/mL, were evaluated for sperm quality parameters. Extended semen was packaged into 0.25 mL straws containing 20 x 106 spermatozoa and chilled for 72 h. Four random straws each from the control and treatment groups were warmed at 37°C, pooled and evaluated using a computer-assisted semen analyser (IVOS Hamilton Thorne Biosciences) for general and progressive motilities, and for morphology, viability and acrosome damage using eosin-nigrosin stain under phase-contrast microscope. Results showed that sperm morphology, viability and protection of acrosome damage were significantly improved (p<0.05) at BHT concentrations of 0.5 in BX and 1.0 mM/mL in TEY and CEY compared to the controls. The BHT also showed a potential positive effect on progressive motility at 0.5 mM/mL in BX and 1.0 mM/mL in TEY and CEY. High concentrations of BHT (2.0 and 3.0 mM/mL), however, produced deteriorative effects on the sperm parameters in all the extenders. In conclusion, BHT when added at 0.5 mM/mL in BX and 1.0 mM/mL concentration to TEY and CEY extenders improved the quality parameters of bull chilled semen.
ISSN 1511-3701
e-ISSN 2231-8542