The effects of Leucaena leucocephala on semen quality, fertility and reproductive


performance of dihydroxy pyridone-adapted South African Nguni goats

 

A. A.  AKINGBADE  a1 c1, I. V.  NSAHLAI  a2 and C. D.  MORRIS  a3


a1 Department of Animal Production and Health, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology,

Ogbomoso, Nigeria


a2 Discipline of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South

Africa


a3 Range and Forage Institute, Agricultural Research Council, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

 

Abstract

The effects of feeding Leucaena leucocephala on semen quality and fertility were examined

 

using four dihydroxy pyridone (DHP)-adapted (21.0, 26.5, 27.0 and 31.0 kg) and four

 

DHP-unadapted (28.0, 31.0, 40.0 and 44.0 kg) South African indigenous Nguni bucks

 

(mature male goats). The DHP-adapted bucks were assigned to air-dried Leucaena

 

leucocephala forage (LL; Leucaena group) while the unadapted ones were maintained on a

 

cereal-based concentrate diet (C; concentrate group) containing 122 g crude protein

 

(CP)/kg over an 84-day period. Buck semen samples were collected on days 0 and 77 of

 

the study. On the last day of the study (day 84), bucks in the Leucaena group were divided

 

into two equal subgroups; a subgroup was assigned to Leucaena leucocephala-grass pasture

 

(LGP) with ten does (mature female goats) while the second subgroup was assigned to

 

natural pasture (NP) with nine does. Similarly, the two concentrate subgroups were

 

separately assigned to mate nine and ten does on LGP and NP plots, respectively. The

 

proportions of normal semen on both groups were not significantly different. However,

 

semen quality on LL treatment increased significantly (P = 0.004) between days 0 and 77

 

and probably explains the significant (P<0.01) difference between the fertility rates of

 

bucks on both treatments. There was no evidence that feeding LL was detrimental to

 

semen quality and fertility of bucks and to conception among females mated by the bucks

 

fed the forage; perhaps due to the fact that the bucks had adapted to DHP as a result of

 

the DHP-degrading rumen bacteria (Synergistes jonesii) that were transferred to them by the

 

does. Synergistes jonesii is known to be capable of detoxifying mimosine and its toxic

 

metabolites to innocuous compounds.


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