Abstract
Ruminant energy supplementation with vegetable oils or fats has been standing out worldwide and oil palm processing has been receiving growing interest. This study assessed the effect of supplementation with saturated and unsaturated fatty acids from the palm oil industry on the lipid profile of seminal plasma and of the sperm membrane, as well as on the morphological and functional characteristics of raw and cryopreserved buffalo semen. Twelve purebred Murrah bulls (Bubalus bubalis) were assigned to the experimental groups and fed diets for 120 days with no added lipids (CONT, four bulls), or with an extra amount of 3% lipids from crude palm oil (PALM, four bulls), or from palm oil deodorizer distillate (PODD, four bulls). Semen was collected and cryopreserved every 15 days. The lipid composition of membranes and semen quality were determined after collections. Lipid supplementation did not impact feed intake (P>0.05). Diet enrichment with PALM increased the linoleic acid (C18:2,ω6) in seminal plasma. Lipid supplementation did not increase the polyunsaturated fatty acids in the sperm membrane composition, but significantly increased the lignoceric acid (C24:0). Cryopreserved semen of the supplemented bulls presented higher progressive motility (60.2 vs. 67.9 vs. 65.2%; P<0.05) and sperm viability detected by eosin-nigrosin staining (61.1 vs. 69.4 vs. 67.8%; P<0.05). Palm oil reduced major sperm defects in both raw (12.2 vs. 9.3 vs. 13.2%; P<0.0001) and cryopreserved semen (12.4 vs. 9.4 vs. 11.2%; P<0.0001). The lipids added to the diet did not impact the population of spermatozoa with intact plasma and acrosomal membranes (PI-/PSA-), but significantly increased the percentage of spermatozoa with high mitochondrial potential (25.6 vs. 31.5 vs. 32.0%; P=0.008). The results suggest that lipid supplementation based on crude palm oil or palm oil deodorizer distillate can be safely used to feed buffalo bulls and may increase sperm attributes related to male fertility.
Highlights
The characteristics that provide better quality to semen may be directly influenced by nutritional factors (Barth et al, 2008)
Dietary lipid profiles may impact the proportion of phospholipids in sperm membranes by changing the fertilizing capacity of spermatozoa (Santos et al, 2014; Van Tran et al, 2017)
Linoleic acid (C18:2; P=0.05) was the only unsaturated fatty acid found at higher levels in the seminal plasma of bulls in the PALM group compared to control ones
Summary
The characteristics that provide better quality to semen may be directly influenced by nutritional factors (Barth et al, 2008). Dietary lipid composition has shown positive effects on semen quality in different animal species (Mitre et al, 2004; RoquetaRivera et al, 2010). Fatty acid composition in spermatozoa has been considered an important factor for male fertility (Safarinejad et al, 2010; Nasrallah et al, 2020). Among the polyunsaturated fatty acids found in water buffalo sperm, linolenic acid (C18:3, ω3) and linoleic acid (C18:2, ω6) stand out (Jain and Anand, 1976). Those acids are considered essential as they are not synthesized in the organism of the animals and must be provided in the diet (Perini et al, 2010). Fatty acid composition in spermatozoa has proven to be important for the cryopreservation of those cells in some animal species (Maldjian et al, 2005; Melville et al, 2012; Lee et al, 2019)
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