The effect of organic zinc on seminal quality and sperm production in rabbit bucks
Submitted: 2025-03-03
|Accepted: 2025-10-02
|Published: 2025-12-29
Copyright (c) 2025 José Guadalupe Herrera-Haro , Héctor Luis-Chincoya, Arturo Pro-Martinez, Amalio Santacruz-Varela, Raymundo Rodriguez-De Lara, Marianella Fallas-Lopez, Martha Patricia Jerez-Salas, Daniel Alonso Domínguez-Olvera
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Keywords:
rabbits bucks, organic zinc, reproductive performance
Supporting agencies:
This publication is derived from doctoral research funded by a grant from CONACYT (now SECIHTI).
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation with organic zinc (zinc methionine with 12% of Zn) at levels exceeding standard nutritional recommendations on sexual behaviour (reaction time to ejaculation), semen quality and quantity, and sperm production in rabbit bucks. Five months old New Zealand White rabbits (n=33) were randomly assigned to three treatments: T1) basal diet (BD) or control, without the addition of zinc, considering only the provision of the ingredients included in the diet (25 mg Zn kg–1); T2) 150 Zn: BD+150 mg of organic Zn; T3) 200 Zn: BD+200 mg of organic Zn. A completely randomised design was employed, with 11 replicates per treatment. Each buck constituted an experimental unit. Six semen collection sessions were carried out with two ejaculations per buck, one collection per week. The dietary Zn concentration in the diet was shown to affect curvilinear sperm velocity (VCL; P=0.026), curvilinear sperm distance (DCL; P=0.007) and the percentage of normal sperm (PNS; P=0.02). The VCL, DCL and PNS in rabbits with 200 Zn were higher than those in the 150 Zn and the control group. First ejaculates showed greater (P<0.05) reproduction potential due to: 27% less reaction time, 87.4% more presence of gel and increased seminal volume (42.7%), sperm concentration per ejaculate (41.7%), straightness of track (2.8%) and number of seminal doses (8.3), whereas the amplitude of lateral head displacement and curvilinear distance were higher (P<0.05) than in the second ejaculate. The BD bucks and those with 150 mg Zn kg–1 in their diet improved sperm kinematics, seminal quality and reproductive potential. The diet with 200 mg Zn kg–1 (T3) may have adverse effects on the reproductive performance of male rabbits, which may impact the doe’s prolificacy and fertility levels.
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