EFFECT OF WHOLE COTTONSEED AND COTTONSEED CAKE ON REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF RED SOKOTO BUCKS

Abstract

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of feeding cotton products (whole cottonseed and cottonseed cake) on testicular biometry and testicular histology of Red Sokoto bucks. A total of twenty-four (24) healthy Red Sokoto bucks were used and randomly allocated to 6 dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. The treatments contained 10, 20 and 30% inclusion levels of either Whole cottonseed (WCS) or Cottonseed cake (CSC) in the diets which were fed to the bucks over a period of 98 days after a 14-day adjustment period. Bucks fed CSC had significantly (P<0.05) higher scrotal circumference and lower cytoplasmic droplets than those fed WCS. Bucks fed 30% diets with cottonseed products (WCS and CSC) had significantly higher scrotal circumference, testicular weight and corpus weights than those fed other levels of cottonseed products. However, bucks fed CSC had higher testicular length than those fed WCS. Testicular histopathology indicated that higher levels (20 and 30%) of WCS had adverse effect on spermatogenesis with empty seminiferous and epididymal tubules. 30% inclusion of CSC also resulted in tissue degeneration. It was therefore concluded that bucks fed diets with CSC performed better than WCS and that up to 20% of CSC can be fed to breeding bucks whereas WCS should not be fed to breeding bucks except at very low levels (10%) as it negatively affects semen quality, gonadal and extragonadal sperm reserves as well as testicular histology of Red Sokoto bucks