Damilola E Akinyemi

An experiment was carried out to evaluate the semen quality of rabbits administered varied levels of exogenous L-Selenomethionine (L-SeMet). Twenty four male rabbits (10 months old) were randomly allotted to four treatments in a completely randomised design. Treatment 1 (control) was without exogenous L-SeMet, while treatments 2, 3 and 4 were administered 0.2 mgkg-1 , 0.3 mgkg-1 and 0.4 mgkg-1 oral supplementation of L-SeMet, respectively at 48hours interval for 6 weeks. Semen samples were collected at day 21 and day 42 using artificial vagina from the bucks and assessed for volume, mass activity, progressive motility, percentage dead and live sperm cells and sperm concentration. Sperm progressive motility and sperm concentration increased significantly (P<0.05) as the concentration of L-SeMet increases at day 21. However, percentage dead sperm cells significantly (P<0.05) reduced with increase in the level of L-SeMet supplementation. At day 42, it was also observed that mass activity, sperm progressive motility and sperm concentration 2 were significantly (P<0.05) highest in rabbits administered 0.4 mgkg-1 L-SeMet. However, semen volume was not significantly different among the treatments on both days of assessment. This suggested that exogenous supplementation of L-SeMet up to 0.4 mgkg-1 improved semen attributes and sperm cells formation of the rabbit bucks.

This study was carried out to determine the effect of replacing soybean meal (SBM) with Leucaena leucocephala leaf meal (LLM) in the diet of broiler chickens. One hundred and fifty one-day-old broiler chicks were allotted to five treatments, each with three replicates and ten birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. The experiment was carried out at the University Teaching and Research Farm, Federal University of Technology Akure. The feeding trial lasted for 8 weeks. The treatments were Diet 1 (control, without LLM replacement) and Diets 2, 3, 4, and 5 where soybean meal (SBM) was replaced by 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of LLM, respectively from 0-56 days of rearing. Substitution of SBM with LLM significantly (P < 0.05) influenced the performance of broilers.