Impact of feeding cottonseed coproducts on reproductive system of male sheep during peripubertal period

• Autor(a) principal: Paim, Tiago do Prado
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Viana, Pauline, Brandão, Eduardo, Amador, Samara, Barbosa, Tatiana, Cardoso, Caio, Lucci, Carolina Madeira, Souza, Jurandir Rodrigues de, McManus, Concepta, Abdalla, Adibe Luiz, Louvandini, Helder
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Scientia Agrícola (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/sa/article/view/121813

Cottonseed coproducts contain gossypol which can have specific effects upon the male reproductive system. We evaluated the reproductive development of male lambs close to puberty fed on three cotton coproducts. Twenty-four 5-month old male lambs received four diets: 20 % of dry matter intake of whole cottonseed (WCS), high oil cottonseed meal (CSC), cottonseed meal (CSM), and a control group (CTL) without any cottonseed coproducts. Free gossypol intake was 16.32, 6.98, 5.47 and 0 mg kg−1 BW−1 d−1 for WCS, CSC, CSM and CTL, respectively. Every 15 days, the animals were weighted and serum and semen samples were collected. After 95 days, testis samples were collected for analysis under light and transmission electron microscopes. The CTL group had higher testosterone concentrations than CSC at the end of the trial and lower total sperm defects, higher mass movement and higher scores for seminiferous epithelium than other treatments. The WCS and CSC groups showed higher levels of segmental aplasia lesion in sperm than other diets, which showed that high levels of gossypol led to higher occurrence of this lesion. Cottonseed coproducts had a negative impact on the reproductive system of pubertal lambs regardless of gossypol concentration. Therefore, the use of cottonseed coproducts to feed lambs earmarked for reproduction is not safe.