Assessment of antioxidants for preservation of crossbred bull semen in Tris based extender

Abstract

Present study was aimed to improve poor quality crossbred bulls semen, as occurrence of poor quality ejaculates are one of the major problems in crossbred bulls. Antioxidants and its combination was tried to overcome such problems. Vitamin E, Vitamin C and Vitamin E+C were supplemented at dose rate of 1mg, 5 mM and 1mg + 5mM per ml respectively in split ejaculates to evaluate semen quality during preservation at refrigerated temperature and cryopreservation. The results showed that semen characteristics were better in antioxidant supplemented ejaculates. Total sperm abnormality were significantly lower (p<0.05) in antioxidant supplemented group. The seminal characteristics of crossbred bull semen showed significantly better (p<0.05) performance on preservation, when fortified with Vitamin E as compared to Vitamin C alone as well as Vitamin E and C in combination. The performance of semen additives, were supportive to semen characteristics especially for Vitamin E, moreover fortification with Vitamin E+C was slightly superior to Vitamin C. It can be concluded that fortification of Vitamin E has beneficial role in semen quality improvement followed by Vitamin E+C and Vitamin C.