Proc. 37th MSAP Ann. Conf., 1 – 3 June 2016, Melaka, Malaysia.

EFFECT OF DIFFERRENT PROTIEN LEVEL AND SELENIUM

SUPPLEMENTATION ON SEMEN QUALITY OF DORPER RAM

Julie Marzlinda, M.R.1*, H. Yaakub1, A.R. Alimon1, J.M. Panandam1, S.

Shanmugavelu2, P. Mohd Azlan3 and H. Hazlinda1

¹Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor
2
Animal Science Research Centre, Malaysian Agricultural Research and Developement Institution
(MARDI), Serdang, Selangor
3
Animal Science Research Centre, MARDI Kluang, Johor
*Email: juliem@mardi.gov.my

Dorper sheep in Malaysia were imported from South African to help the
livestock industry to increase meat production. Dorper sheep is known to have the
ability to adapt to various climatic regions. Several information on the Dorper sheep
performance is already available (1,2), but there are still lacking on ram reproductive
performance under local feed and environmental conditions. Dietary components such
as protein and energy are known to influence reproductive performances (3). Several
findings also suggest that using Selenium (Se) as supplement improved male
reproduction performance (2,4,5). Therefore this study was conducted to evaluate the
effect of two different levels of protein with Se supplementation on the quality of fresh
semen. Nineteen Dorper rams between 15 to 16 months old were trained for semen
collection and randomly allocated into four groups in a 2x2 factorial design. All rams
were kept in individual pens at the National Animal Embryo Centre at MARDI Kluang.
Animals were fed a total mix ration (TMR) according to NRC 1981 (6). The treatment
groups were low protein (PL: 180g) and high protein (PH: 270 g), without (S0) or with
(S1) Se supplementation. Se was supplemented in the feed at 1mg/kg of body weight
in the form of organic Se (Selemax 2000). Energy level was maintained at 12.5 MJ
ME/kg on dry matter basis in all treatment. Data were subjected to proc GLM using
Statistical Analysis System (SAS) version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA).
Results on fresh semen show no significant interaction between the main effects
(P>0.05) for all parameters (Table 1).

Table 1: The volume, sperm concentration, percentage of sperm viability, normality

and motility of fresh semen in Dorper ram fed on two different levels of protein and
Selenium supplementation (mean±SEM)

PL PH P*S
Parameters
S0 (n=4) S1 (n=4) S0 (n=4) S1 (n=5)
Semen volume 0.76 ± 0.07 0.51 ± 0.06 0.76 ±0.05 0.70 ± 0.04 ns
(ml)
Concentration 2.97 ± 0.36 2.20 ± 0.30 3.33 ± 0.39 3.15 ± 0.34 ns
( x109 sperm/ml)
Viability (%) 67.25 ± 3.30 75.93 ± 2.59 68.06 ± 3.65 68.45 ± 2.19 ns
Normality (%) 62.81 ± 3.99 70.38 ± 3.14 54.75 ± 6.48 60.10 ± 3.83 ns
Total motility (%) 67.94 ± 4.07 83.06 ± 3.36 68.56 ± 5.12 74.85 ± 3.67 ns
PL = 180g protein, PH = 263.41g protein; S0 = without, S1= with Selenium supplementation (1mg/kg
body weight); n= number of animal, ns= no significant different

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Proc. 37th MSAP Ann. Conf., 1 – 3 June 2016, Melaka, Malaysia.

Even though Se was given as supplement, the lack of significance in the present
study could be due to a small difference between protein levels (2). Nevertheless, the
group supplemented with Se (S1) had the tendency for a higher percentage of viability,
normality and motility. This is similar to other reports (7) on percentage of viability,
normality and motility. It was concluded that, the supplementation of Se is not
necessary to improve ram reproductive performance when the provision of protein in
the diet is sufficient. However, there is a potential of improving reproductive
performances in rams fed low protein levels with Se supplementation, but this has to be
verified further.

Authors would like to thank staffs from ARB farm and NAEC at MARDI
Kluang for their assistance and support in this study.

1) Marai, I.F.M., El-Darawany, A., Ismail, E.A., and Abdel-Hafez, M.A.M. (2009).
Reproductive and physiological traits of Egyptian Suffolk rams as affected by
selenium dietary supplementation and housing heat radiation effects during winter
of the sub-tropical environment of Egypt. Archiv Tierzucht, 52: 402–409.
2) Julie Marzlinda, M.R., Shanmugavelu S., Yusof Hamali A., Rozali H., and Chek
Norazlinda C.N. (2013). Body weight and average daily gain of Dorper rams fed
different levels of energy and protein. Proc 34th MSAP Ann. Conf. : 107-108.
3) Brown, B.W. (1994). A review of nutritional influence on reproduction in boars,
bulls and rams. Reprod Nutr Dev, 34: 89-11.
4) Ahangari, Y.J., Parizadian, B., and Zamani, M. (2013). The impact of organic
selenium supplementation on rooster semen quality in liquid condition. Poult Sci.
J., 1: 23-31.
5) Ali, A.B., Bomboi, G., and Floris, B. (2009). Does vitamin E or vitamin E plus
selenium improve reproductive performance of rams during hot weather. Ital.
J. Anim. Sci., 8: 743–754.
6) NRC, (1981). Nutrient Requirements of Goats, Angora, Dairy and Meat Goat in
Temperate and Tropical Countries. Washington, DC .
7) Lei Shi, Chunxiang Zhang, WenbinYue, Liguang Shi, Xiaomin Zhu, and Fulin Lei.
(2010). Short-term effect of dietary selenium-enriched yeast on semen parameters,
antioxidant status and Se concentration in goat seminal plasma. Anim. Feed Sci.
Technol., 157: 104–108.

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