Morphometry Of Organs Research Articles

Кріт європейський (Talpa europaea) у Тростянецькому дендропарку: особливості морфології та екології

The article presents information on biological and ecological features of the mole population in the Trostianets arboretum, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. Morphological features were studied based on morphometry and weighting of internal organs of 112 specimens. The diet was investigated based on stomach contents, and the absolute predominance of annelids was shown. It was shown on 12 soil transects (10 m long and 0.5 m deep) that the location of the mole’s underground tunnels corresponds to the horizons of the highest invertebrate density. There are 1.3 molehills for each running metre of soil transect, with an average depth of 18 cm (from 6 to 50 cm), and an average of 12–13 km of tunnels per one hectare of the park.

Effects of selenium nanoparticles coated with chitosan supplementation on morphometry of immune organs, redox status, and immune response in broiler chicken

Effects of selenium nanoparticles coated with chitosan supplementation on morphometry of immune organs, redox status, and immune response in broiler chicken

Deleterious Effects of Polypropylene Microplastic Ingestion in Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

The effect of daily ingestion of polypropylene microplastic on the health of tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, was evaluated. 60 fish (± 200g) were placed in 6 aquariums (n = 10, 100L each), constituting the following treatments: Control (without the addition of polymer), fed with 100 and 500µg of polypropylene/kg of body weight (b.w.), respectively. After 30 days of feeding, the animals were submitted to blood collection for hemogram and biochemical study and later euthanized for gut microbiological analysis, somatic index of liver, spleen, heart, kidney, stomach, and intestine. In the serum biochemical study, an increase in cholesterol and serum Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) activity levels was observed in animals treated with 500µg of polypropylene. Tilapia-fed polypropylene in the diet showed an increase in thrombocyte and total leukocyte counts, marked by a significant increase in the number of circulating lymphocytes. The results of the somatic study revealed a significant increase in the stomach, liver, and heart of tilapia fed with the polymer. Increase in the number of Gram-negative microorganisms and decrease in mesophilic aerobic microorganisms were observed in the gut of fish exposed to the polymer, including a dose-response effect was observed for these analyses. Therefore, tilapias fed daily with diets containing polypropylene for 30 consecutive days showed deleterious effects, resulting in systemic inflammatory disturbs by altering liver functions, leukocyte profile, and organ morphometry, as well as changes in the intestinal microbiota. Such results demonstrate the impairment of fish health, highlighting the need for further studies that evaluate the impact of microplastics on aquatic organisms.

Effect of dietary dexamethasone on the morphologic and morphometric adaptations in the lymphoid organs and mortality rate in broilers.

Thymus, bursa of Fabricius and spleen are the major lymphoid organs of avian species that plays a crucial role in their immunity. Though glucocorticoids are reportedly used as growth promoters, they also suppress the immune system. The objective of this study was to investigate the morphologic and morphometric adaptations in the lymphoid organs as well as the mortality rate in broilers in response to long-term treatment with dexamethasone (DEX). A total of 80 one-day-old broiler chicks (Cobb 500) were randomly divided into four homogenous groups (control - C and treatment groups - T1, T2, and T3). The treatment groups received DEX at the rate of 3, 5, and 7 mg/kg commercial feed. Samples, i.e. thymus, bursa of Fabricius, and spleen, were collected on 7, 14, 21, and 28 days of the experiment. Relative weight of the organs was calculated on each sampling day. The tissues were then processed and stained with haematoxylin and eosin stain for morphological and morphometric study. The relative weight of lymphoid organs was found substantially (p < 0.05) less in the DEX-treated groups. Significant (p < 0.05) reduction in lobular size and the cortical-medullary ratio was observed in the thymus of the DEX-treated broilers. Follicular atrophy and massive depletion of lymphocytes were evident in the bursa of Fabricius. The mortality rate was also increased which was largely dependent on the dose and duration of DEX treatment. The study results indicate that DEX treatment can alter the morphology and morphometry of lymphoid organs which might result in severe immunosuppression and increased mortality rate in broilers.

Effect of Dietary Zeolite Supplementation on Production, Egg Quality, Ammonia Volatilization, Organ Morphometry and Blood Parameters in Brown Laying Hens

Effect of Dietary Zeolite Supplementation on Production, Egg Quality, Ammonia Volatilization, Organ Morphometry and Blood Parameters in Brown Laying Hens

Effect of distillery stillage on organ morphometry in pre-fattening pigs

To assess the behavior of morphometric indicators of organs in pre-fattening pigs, distillery stillage was used as an additive. For this study, a completely randomized design was used with 20 73-day-old pigs of the Yorkland Duroc breed, divided into two groups of 10 animals each, one of which was used as a control and the other was included in stillage. the diet during the evaluation period (40 days). The stillage used was obtained from the distillery and after carrying out its characterization, it was applied to 1.5 % of the dry matter of the food consumed. Organ morphometric indicators were evaluated. During the study period, the animals did not present pathological affectations in the histology of the organs. An increase in size and weight of the organs was obtained, as well as a longitudinal increase of up to more than 30 microns in the villi and the crypts of the duodenum and ileum of the animals treated with vinasse compared to those not treated with mean values of 340. and 334; 290 and 280 (µm) respectively, which favors the adsorption of nutrients. It is concluded that the use of distillery vinasse as an additive with the dose used for pre-fattening pigs can optimize the use of dietary nutrients and guarantee better health behavior of the piglets.

Semantic segmentation of bone structures in chest X-rays including unhealthy radiographs: A robust and accurate approach

The chest X-ray is a widely used medical imaging technique for the diagnosis of several lung diseases. Some nodules or other pathologies present in the lungs are difficult to visualize on chest X-rays because they are obscured byoverlying boneshadows. Segmentation of bone structures and suppressing them assist medical professionals in reliable diagnosis and organ morphometry. But segmentation of bone structures is challenging due to fuzzy boundaries of organs and inconsistent shape and size of organs due to health issues, age, and gender. The existing bone segmentation methods do not report their performance on abnormal chest X-rays, where it is even more critical to segment the bones. This work presents a robust encoder–decoder network for semantic segmentation of bone structures on normal as well as abnormal chest X-rays. The novelty here lies in combining techniques from two existing networks (Deeplabv3+ and U-net) to achieve robust and superior performance. The fully connected layers of the pre-trained ResNet50 network have been replaced by an Atrous spatial pyramid pooling block for improving the quality of the embedding in the encoder module. The decoder module includes four times upsampling blocks to connect both low-level and high-level features information enabling us to retain both the edges and detail information of the objects. At each level, the up-sampled decoder features are concatenated with the encoder features at a similar level and further fine-tuned to refine the segmentation output. We construct a diverse chest X-ray dataset with ground truth binary masks of anterior ribs, posterior ribs, and clavicle bone for experimentation. The dataset includes 100 samples of chest X-rays belonging to healthy and confirmed patients of lung diseases to maintain the diversity and test the robustness of our method. We test our method using multiple standard metrics and experimental results indicate an excellent performance on both normal and abnormal chest X-rays.

Study of Morphological Changes in Rat Liver Caused by Occlusion of Inferior Vena Cava

Up to date, there are no reports on animal survival rate and morphological changes in the liver caused by the impairment of blood outflow from the liver and its time dependence. Moreover, the impact of duration and degree of occlusion of inferior vena cava on pathological changes was not investigated yet. This study aimed at the assessment of the survival rate and morphological changes in the liver with varying degrees of occlusion of inferior vena cava. The exact timing of the reversibility of pathological processes was determined. Rats (n= 160) were randomly divided into five groups: I - control group (CG) (n= 20); II - sham group (SG) (n=20); III - intervention group (IG-1) (narrowing of the lumen of the inferior vena cava by 25%) (n=40); IV intervention group (IG-2) (narrowing by 50%) (n= 40); and intervention group V (IG-3) (narrowing by 75%) (n= 40). The level of postoperative pain, the body and liver weight of the animals, histological examination, morphometry, and macroscopic evaluation of abdominal organs were carried out on the 1, 3, 7, 14, and 30 days following the surgical intervention. The survival rate of animals was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method. On the 30th day, the rat grimace scale indices in the IG-1 (P≤0.05), IG-2, and IG-3 (P ≤ 0.001) groups were higher. By body weight, this indicator on the 30th day was lower in the IG-1 (P≤0.05), IG-2, and IG-3 (P ≤ 0.001) groups compared to the CG and SG groups. In the IG1 and IG2 groups, the survival rates were 72.5% and 65.0%, respectively. The lowest survival rate was observed in the IG3 group (22.5%). Compression of the inferior vena cava by 75% led to an increase in animal mortality and the development of persistent morphological changes in the liver. At the same time, the survival rate of animals and the extent of changes in the liver with narrowing of the inferior vena cava by 25% and 50% had similar results. The results acquired possess scientific and practical importance.

Comparative Studies on Blood Serum Profiles of Liver Enzymes, Proteins, Total Bilirubin and Liver Organ Morphometry of Muscovy Ducks

Twenty adult apparently healthy Muscovy ducks Cairina moschata (10 males, 10 females) were used in a study to compare between sexes blood serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein, albumin, and total bilirubin profiles using jugular venous blood. Comparative biometric measurements (weight, length, width and thickness) of their liver organs were also done. Total protein and albumin were significantly (P 0.05) by sex. The biometric measurements of the liver of Muscovy ducks according to sex were significantly (P &lt; 0.05) higher in males than females. Liver biometric measurements according to lobation were significantly (P &lt; 0.05) higher in the right lobe than in the left lobe, particularly, in terms of liver lobe weight and length of both sexes of ducks while liver lobe width and thickness were statistically similar (P &gt; 0.05) in both sexes. Therefore, sex had a significant influence on serum total protein and albumin, as well as the biometric measurements of the liver of Muscovy ducks studied.

Water salinity and air temperature on quail production and organ characteristics

ABSTRACT The supply of salt water in the semiarid region is a recurrent practice, as there is a severe shortage of water for use in animal consumption. Thus, most of the times the water offered to the birds can contain salts above the recommended amount. The present study aimed to evaluate the production performance and morphometry of the organs of Japanese quails as they were supplied with drinking water with different concentrations of sodium chloride, while being maintained in comfort and under thermal stress. The birds received water with increasing electrical conductivity (1.5, 3.0, 4.5 and 6.0 dS m-1) and were kept in a climate chamber at thermoneutral air temperature (24 °C) and under thermal stress (32 °C), being distributed in a completely randomized design and 2 × 4 factorial scheme. Water electrical conductivities did not affect the performance of the birds, except for the weight of the gizzard, which showed an increasing linear effect as the electrical conductivities increased. At the stress temperature, there was reduction in feed intake, egg weight and mass, and in feed conversion per dozen eggs, but with no effect on the weights of the heart, liver and gizzard. Japanese quails in the production phase can consume water with electrical conductivity of up to 6.0 dS m-1, showing good production performance and without compromising organ morphometry.

Magnesium in the water of Japanese quails kept under comfort zone and under thermal stress

The objective was to evaluate the increasing levels of magnesium in the water supplied to laying quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica), kept in climatic chambers under thermoneutral temperature and thermal stress, on their performance and morphometry of their organs. The birds were distributed in a completely randomized design, 2x4 factorial arrangement, 2 temperatures (24 and 32 ºC) and 4 levels of magnesium in the water (50, 150, 250 and 350 mg L-1), with six replicates and eight birds per experimental unit. The data were subjected to analysis of variance and the means compared by the Tukey test at 5% probability level. The magnesium levels in the water did not affect (P &gt; 0.05) the production performance and morphometry of the organs, with less water consumption at the magnesium level of 150 mg L-1, and birds kept at 32 °C had a reduction in feed consumption and feed conversion, but without affecting organ morphometry. Japanese quails in the production phase can consume water with magnesium levels up to 350 mg L-1 without having their production performance and morphometry of organs affected and raised in an environment with temperatures of up to 32 °C.

Viability of sugarcane and Erianthus arundinaceus pollen under marcotting treatment

Most of the sugarcane cultivated today is the hybrid between Saccharum offinarum and its relative, S. spontaneum. The breeding relies mainly on the crossing of male and female parents, which needs the excellent viability of the pollen from the male parent. Marcotting or air layer is a technique to facilitate parents to be crossed outside of the sugarcane fields. The technique allows sugarcane roots to grow from stalk internodes wrapped with soil to maintain the viability of the male and female gametes during the crossing. We investigated the effect of marcotted stalks on pollen viability. The cultivars observed in the study were PS-862, PS-865, 88-1762, and 89-2143, along with the Saccharum’s wild relative, Erianthus arundinaceus. Pollens from marcotted and control stalks were taken and stained with Lugol’s or IKI solution daily to confirm their viability and diameter measurement. Additional parameters observed were root weight, male and female organ morphometry. The results showed that pollen viability was not affected by marcotting or air layering treatment. In addition, the treatment could maintain flower anthesis in panicles or arrows within more than two weeks. The pollen sizes varied among cultivar and genus, while the viable pollen tended to be bigger than the non-viable ones.

Reflection-Mode Ultrasound Computed Tomography Based on Wavelet Processing for High-Contrast Anatomical and Morphometric Imaging

Medical B-mode ultrasound is widely used for the examination of children’s limbs, including soft tissue, muscle, and bone. However, for the accurate examination of the bone only, it is often replaced by more restrictive clinical modalities. Several authors have investigated ultrasonic imaging of bone to assess cortical thickness and/or to estimate the wave velocity through the internal structure. The present work focuses on the transverse slice imaging process using reflection-mode ultrasound computed tomography (USCT). The method is valid for imaging soft tissues with similar acoustic impedances, but in the presence of bone, the higher contrasts alter the propagation of ultrasonic waves and reduce the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). There is a need to change the methods used for the processing of ultrasonic signals. Our group has developed a wavelet-based coded excitation (WCE) method to process information in frequency and time. The objective of this study is to use the method to improve reflection-mode USCT, at low ultrasonic intensities, to better address organ morphometry. Experimental results on a newborn arm phantom and on an ex vivo chicken drumstick are presented, and the usefulness of this WCE-mode USCT is discussed.

Pharmacological properties of durva swaras (Cynodon dactylon L. Pers.) in an ovariectomised rat model mimicking chronic menopausal syndrome

Hormonal replacement therapy (HRT), as the first-line management of chronic menopausal syndrome (CMS) in women, has limited application due to adverse effects. We aimed to evaluate the therapeutic potential of a herbal alternative (HALT), durva swaras (DS) of Cynodon dactylon L. Pers., in a CMS rat model. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to Sham and ovariectomy (OVX) surgery. OVX rats received either 0.11 mg/kg oestrogen as a positive treatment control or 1 (DS1), 2 (DS2), and 4 (DS3) g/kg DS for 160 days. Vaginal smear tests indicated the menopausal status. Routine clinical examinations, weekly body weights (BW), serum calcium, proinflammatory cytokines, and reproductive hormones levels were monitored. Clinical chemistry, body composition, bone mineral density (BMD), uterotrophic response, bone morphometry, and histopathology of major organs were evaluated. BW of OVX rats increased by 18–25% compared to Sham. Total fat and fat percentage were significantly elevated in the oestrogen group compared to DS2, DS3, and OVX group. DS treatment groups showed the levels of TNF- α was slightly reduced, while IL-1β and IL-6 levels were significantly reduced (P < 0.05) compared to the oestrogen treated group. DS treatment restored serum calcium levels, while BMD, bone quality, osteoblast/osteoclast ratio, and collagen levels improved in both DS and oestrogen treatment groups. The uterotrophic assay demonstrated non-oestrogenic activity of DS. Endometrial hyperplastic change was observed in oestrogen-treated rats. The preclinical non-oestrogenic activity of DS has therapeutic potential in CMS through anti-inflammatory and osteo-protective effects. Further clinical research into DS, as a viable HALT to HRT, is required.

Right-ventricular dysfunction in HFpEF is linked to altered cardiomyocyte Ca2+ homeostasis and myofilament sensitivity.

AimsHeart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is frequently (30%) associated with right ventricular (RV) dysfunction, which increases morbidity and mortality in these patients. Yet cellular mechanisms of RV remodelling and RV dysfunction in HFpEF are not well understood. Here, we evaluated RV cardiomyocyte function in a rat model of metabolically induced HFpEF.Methods and resultsHeart failure with preserved ejection fraction‐prone animals (ZSF‐1 obese) and control rats (Wistar Kyoto) were fed a high‐caloric diet for 13 weeks. Haemodynamic characterization by echocardiography and invasive catheterization was performed at 22 and 23 weeks of age, respectively. After sacrifice, organ morphometry, RV histology, isolated RV cardiomyocyte function, and calcium (Ca2+) transients were assessed. ZSF‐1 obese rats showed a HFpEF phenotype with left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, LV diastolic dysfunction (including increased LV end‐diastolic pressures and E/e′ ratio), and preserved LV ejection fraction. ZSF‐1 obese animals developed RV dilatation (50% increased end‐diastolic area) and mildly impaired RV ejection fraction (42%) with evidence of RV hypertrophy. In isolated RV cardiomyocytes from ZSF‐1 obese rats, cell shortening amplitude was preserved, but cytosolic Ca2+ transient amplitude was reduced. In addition, augmentation of cytosolic Ca2+ release with increased stimulation frequency was lost in ZSF‐1 obese rats. Myofilament sensitivity was increased, while contractile kinetics were largely unaffected in intact isolated RV cardiomyocytes from ZSF‐1 obese rats. Western blot analysis revealed significantly increased phosphorylation of cardiac myosin‐binding protein C (Ser282 cMyBP‐C) but no change in phosphorylation of troponin I (Ser23, 24 TnI) in RV myocardium from ZSF‐1 obese rats.ConclusionsRight ventricular dysfunction in obese ZSF‐1 rats with HFpEF is associated with intrinsic RV cardiomyocyte remodelling including reduced cytosolic Ca2+ amplitudes, loss of frequency‐dependent augmentation of Ca2+ release, and increased myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity.

The effect of hydrothermal processing on the performance of broiler chicks fed corn or sorghum-based diets

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of hydrothermal processing method on growth performance, digestive organ morphometry, activity of pancreatic amylase and lipase, plasma glucose and insulin concentration of broiler chicks fed post-hatching diets containing different carbohydrate sources (corn or sorghum). The experiment was carried out in a completely randomised design following a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement (factor 1: pelleting or extrusion processing; factor 2: corn or sorghum) with six replicates of 30 chicks each. Chicks were fed the diets in transport boxes for 24 h after hatch (post-hatch phase). After the post-hatch phase, all the chicks were housed and fed the same pre-starter diet. The response parameters were evaluated after 24 h and at seven days of age. The data were subjected to two-way ANOVA and the means compared by the Tukey post-hoc test (5%). After 24 h, chicks fed pelleted post-hatch diets showed a lower weight loss. Chicks fed diets containing sorghum had improved absorption of nutrients from yolk sac denoted by the reduced yolk sac weight. Broiler chicks fed extruded corn-based diets showed higher specific amylase activity (P < 0.001) and lower glucose concentration at 24 h after hatching (P < 0.001) while at seven days of age they showed the worst feed conversion rate (FCR) (P = 0.002). No difference on FCR was observed among the other groups (P> 0.05). Hydrothermal processing method nor carbohydrate source affected digestive organ weight of broiler chicks (P > 0.05). Broiler chicks fed extruded sorghum-based diets showed increased blood glucose levels in the post-hatch phase while the animals fed pelleted corn-based diets showed improved FCR during pre-initial phase.

Early Exposure to High-Sucrose Diet Leads to Deteriorated Ovarian Health.

BackgroundThe metabolic syndrome (MetS) is correlated with disorders of the reproductive system, such as the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). While consumption of a diet rich in carbohydrates is linked to the development of MetS, it is still unclear if this diet leads to ovarian dysfunction and PCOS.ObjectivesWe investigated the influence of a high-sucrose diet (HSD) on the ovarian milieu of Wistar rats and studied the correlation between high consumption of sugary drinks and the prevalence of PCOS in women.MethodsWistar rats were given a standard laboratory diet (CTR, 10% sucrose, n = 8) or HSD (HSD, 25% sucrose, n = 8) from postnatal day 21 to 120. Animals were evaluated weekly to calculate food intake, feed efficiency and weight gain. Both onset of puberty and estrous cycle were monitored. Metabolic serum biochemistry, organ morphometry and ovarian histology were performed upon euthanasia. In parallel, a fixed-effects multiple linear regression analysis was performed using data from Brazilian states (459 state-year observations) to test the correlation between the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (surrogate for HSD intake) and the prevalence of PCOS (surrogate for ovarian dysfunction).ResultsHSD animals showed increased adipose tissue accumulation, hyperglycaemia and insulin resistance when compared to CTR. Interestingly HSD rats also entered puberty earlier than CTR. Moreover, ovaries from HSD animals had an increased number of atretic antral follicles and cystic follicles, which were correlated with the hypertrophy of periovarian adipocytes. Finally, there was a positive correlation between the intake of sugary drinks and prevalence of PCOS in women of reproductive age.ConclusionsHSD ingestion leads to ovarian dysfunction in rats and could be correlated with PCOS in women, suggesting these alterations could lead to public health issues. Therefore, we reinforce the deleterious impact of HSD to the ovarian system and suggest that the reduction of added sugars intake could be beneficial to ovarian health.

Supplementation of diets for piglets with L-Arginine and powdered whole milk

The objective of this study was to evaluate the supplementation of L-Arginine in diets with and without dairy products for piglets weaned at 21 days old. Thirty-two animals with initial mean weight of 5.16 ± 1.92 kg and from the same commercial lineage were allocated in a randomized block design to four diets. The experimental diets consisted of a corn and soybean meal-based diet (NDD), the same diet supplemented with 0.6% L-Arginine (NDDA), the diet supplemented with powdered whole milk (DD), and the diet supplemented with powdered whole milk and 0.6% of L-Arginine (DDA). At 43 days old, 16 animals were slaughtered. The productive performance, incidence of diarrhoea, serum parameters, relative organ weight, morphometry and intestinal health were evaluated. Supplementation with 0.6% of L-Arginine increased (P &lt;0.05) the daily and final weight gain of the piglets at 32 days old and reduced the incidence of diarrhoea. DDA promoted a higher villi to crypt ratio (P &lt;0.05). There was a lower rate of mitosis and apoptosis in the jejunum of animals fed DD and DDA. The non-dairy diet supplemented with 0.6% arginine (NDDA) increased serum immunoglobulin A (IgA) and Immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentrations compared with NDD (P &lt;0.05). Thus, supplementation with 0.6% L-Arginine increased immunological activity, improved intestinal integrity, and reduced the incidence of diarrhoea.

Performance of Male Layer Fed Ration Containing Green Algae (Spirogyra jaoensis) Extract

Some plant extracts containing natural antimicrobial compounds can be used as either feed supplements or alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters (AGP). A plant known as green algae (Spirogyra jaoensis), is one of the species of green algae group. This study aimed to determine the effect of feeding a diet containing S. jaoensis ethanolic extract on the performance of male layer. A complete randomized model was used for experimental design in various variables. This study was conducted with 240 male layer day-old chick (DOC) (31.0±1.25 g) divided into 5 treatment groups. Each group consisted of 48 birds, with 3 replicates and 16 birds for each replicate. Dietary treatments tested namely, Con: control (without S. jaoensis), EGA1: Con + S. jaoensis extract at 0.05%, EGA2: Con + S. jaoensis extract at 0.1%, EGA3: Con + S. jaoensis extract at 0.25%, and EGA4: Con + S. jaoensis extract at 0.5%. Three chickens from each triplicate were taken and decapitated on the neck and the surgery was performed for histological preparations. The variables observed were villi height, cryptic depth, villi/crypt ratio, goblet cell area of the small intestine, thymus organ weight, myofiber area, fasciculus area, muscle surface area of Pectoralis thoracicus muscle, and growth performance in 14-day-old chickens. Data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). If it was significant, a Tukey-test was performed with a significance level at p≤0.05. The results showed that small intestinal morphology, muscle morphology, and growth performance of the EGA4 chicken group increased significantly compared to controls (p≤0.05). This study concludes that the administration of S. jaoensis ethanolic extract improves morphology of the small intestine, morphometry of thymus organs, Pectoralis thoracicus muscle performance, and growth performance in male layer.

Growth response, organ morphometry, sperm production and reserve in rabbit bucks administered carrot fruit extracts

An experiment was conducted for 12 weeks to investigate the anti-oxidative effect of carrot fruit extracts administered to rabbit bucks on growth, organ characteristics, gonadal and extra-gonadal sperm reserves, and daily sperm production. A total of 35 rabbit bucks (four months old with average weight of 1.62±0.2kg) were randomly allotted into treatment groups each containing seven bucks per replicate. The bucks were subjected to the same environmental conditions and were assigned into five doses of carrot fruit extracts administration: Treatment 1 (0 mL of carrot fruit extracts (CE)/kg BW i.e. control), treatment 2 (0.5 mL CE/kg BW), treatment 3 (1.0 mL CE/kg BW), treatment 4 (1.5 ml CE/kg BW), treatment 5 (2 mL CE/kg BW). The extract was administered by drenching using corn oil as the carrier. The bucks were weighed weekly to determine weight gain and feed conversion ratio. At the end of the trial, the bucks were sacrificed, dissected, organs removed and weighed. Testes and epididymis were homogenised and filtered. The sperm cells in the testicular and epididymal homogenates were determined. Organ characteristics: eviscerated weight, adrenal gland, liver, lungs, kidney, pancreas, bile, testis, spleen, heart and GIT weight were measured. Data were subjected to analysis of variance at P = 0.05. The bucks administered with 1.0 mL CE had the highest relative eviscerated weight (48.74±6.73%) and also recorded the highest weight gain (0.21±0.15g/day) when compared to other treatments. There was non-significant difference for most of the organs assessed except for the GIT and spleen weight. The GIT weight was significantly (P&lt;0.05) higher in T1 (15.41%), T3 (14.81%) and T4 (16.23%) than T2 (13.58) and T5 (13.09%) in rabbits administered 0.5mL and 2.0mL CE/kg BW, respectively. Relative spleen weight of rabbits administered 0.2mL CE/kg BW was similar to T1 but significantly (p&lt;0.05) higher than T2, T3 and T4. Testicular and epididymal sperms reserves significantly (P&lt;0.05) increased as the concentration of the carrot fruit extract administered to rabbits increased. Daily sperm production was significantly (P&lt;0.05) higher in treated bucks than the control bucks. This study suggests that administering carrot fruit extracts up to 2mL/kg body weight increased growth, sperm cell production and testicular sperm reserve.