Ameliorative effects of vitamin E on sperm morphological defects of cocks fed fumonisin B1 contaminated diets

The study investigated the ameliorative effect of vitamin E on testicular parameters, semen characteristics and sperm morphology of mature cocks fed Fumonisin B 1 (FB 1 ) contaminated diets. Twenty four weeks old 160 cocks were used for the 16 weeks experiment. The cocks were assigned to eight experimental diets, six diets contained varying inclusion levels of FB 1 with and without the inclusion of vitamin E. Diets 2, 3, and 4 contained 10, 20, and 30 mg kg -1 FB 1 respectively without vitamin E while Diets 6, 7, and 8 contained 10, 20, and 30 mg kg -1 FB 1 respectively with 200 mg kg -1 vitamin E each. Diet 1 was the control without vitamin E while Diet 5 was the control with vitamin E. Each group was replicated four times with five cocks per replicate in a completely randomized design. There were significant ( P <0.05) reductions in the left, right, and paired testicular weights and volumes as well as the paired epididymal weight of the cocks fed diets contaminated with varying levels of FB 1 while the testicular densities were not significantly ( P >0.05) influenced. The ejaculate volume, sperm motility, total sperm cells, total motile cells, mass activity, and total live cells of the cocks fed varying levels of FB 1 were equally significantly ( P <0.05) reduced. However, significant ( P <0.05) increases were observed in the secondary sperm morphological abnormalities such as curved tails, headless tails, and rudimentary tails. Inclusion of vitamin E in the diets significantly ( P <0.05) improved the affected parameters, especially, among the cocks fed 10 mg FB 1 /kg diet. Therefore, vitamin E is recommended as a feed additive to improve the reproductive potentials of cocks fed FB 1 -contaminated diets.