INFLUENCE OF MELATONIN TREATMENT ON SCROTAL CIRCUMFERENCE AND SEMEN PARAMETERS IN SHALL RAMS ON OUT OF SEASON

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Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of melatonin on scrotal circumference and semen parameters using 8 shall rams in April until June 2004 (out of season). In the April, the rams were randomly allocated in two groups. Four animal received 3 implants of melatonin tablets (totally 54 mg/ram) at the base of ear and the other 4 rams were considered as control group and kept at the identical circumstances. The scrotal circumference and semen parameters were weekly recorded over of a period of 14 weeks and the data on each variable were compared base on t-test. There was no significant differences between treatment and control group for scrotal circumference (32.8±.83 vs 32.89±0.21 cm), semen volume (0.98±0.31 vs 0.9±.12 ml/ejaculation), mass motility (3.64±0.46 vs 3.1±0.31), individual motility (70 vs 71percent), sperm concentration (2.23±0.39 vs 1.72±0.31 bilion/ml) and live sperm per cent (79 vs 82 percent ) (p>0.05). It was concluded that to use of melatonin would not improve the semen parameters in out of season reproduction assessment of shall rams.

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