RECENT TECHNIQUES FOR AMELIORATION THE EFFECT OF HEAT STRESS CONDITIONS ON MALE RABBITS

Abstract

The present work was conducted to study the effect of selenium (Se) plus vitamin E(Vitam E) and AD3E vitamins (Vitam AD3E) mixture as two alleviation techniques on heat stressedrabbits during hot summer season of Egypt. In total 45 New Zealand white (NZW) male rabbits wereused in this research. The animals were divided into three equal groups. The 1st group was keptwithout any treatment and served as control group. The 2nd and 3rd groups were supplemented daily1m/l in drinking water with Se plus E and AD3E vitamins mixture, respectively. The experiment lasted7 weeks during hot summer season (from third week of July to the end of August, 2017). Resultsshowed that adding both of Se plus vitamin E and AD3E vitamins mixture in drinking water decreased(P≤0.001) rectal, skin, ear temperature and respiration rate compared with the control group. Addingboth of Se plus vitamin E and AD3E vitamins mixture in drinking water improved (P≤0.05) final livebody weight and feed intake and decreased (P≤0.001) daily water intake in comparative with controlgroup. Adding both of Se plus vitamin E and AD3E vitamins mixture in drinking water increased(P≤0.01) serum total protein, albumin and globulin concentrations and decreased (P≤0.05) urea-N andcreatinine concentrations in male rabbits. Serum cortisol level was (P≤0.001) lower whileTriiodothyronine (T3), Thyroxin (T4) hormonal levels were (P≤0.001) higher in both two treatmentgroups compared with control. Normal sperm, volume, count, motility and live sperm increased(P≤0.001) while dead sperm was decreased (P≤0.001) in the two treatment groups compared withcontrol group. It can be concluded that the two techniques can alleviate the negative effects of heatstress on rabbits under hot summer season in Egypt