University of Baghdad,
College of
Agriculture, Department of Animal Production,
Baghdad,
Iraq
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The present study was
conducted to determine the effects of dietary L-carnitine at different
levels on testicular histology in Iraqi drakes. Forty-eight, 30-wk-old
Iraqi drakes, were fed the same basal diet that was supplemented with 0
(control), 50, 100 or 150 mg of L-carnitine/kg of diet for 12 weeks. The supplementation of dietary L-carnitine at levels of
50, 100 or 100 mg/kg to a basal diet significantly increased absolute
and relative weight of testis, germinal cell thickness, seminiferous
tubules lumen diameter and seminiferous tubules diameter. However,
supplementation of the drake ration with different levels of L-carnitine
significantly increased volume density of spermatocytes, spermatids,
sperms, spermatogenic cells, Sertoli cells, total seminiferous tubules,
Leydig cells, blood vessels and total interstitium and significantly
decreased volume density of vacuoles, lumen, interstitial spaces and
total seminiferous tubules/total interstitium ratio.
Moreover, feeding diets containing different levels of L-carnitine
resulted in significant increase in relative weight of spermatogonia,
spermatocytes, spermatids, sperms, spermatogenic cells, Sertoli cells,
total seminiferous tubules, myoid cells, Leydig cells, blood vessels and
total interstitium and significant decrease in relative weight of total
seminiferous tubules/total interstitium. These results suggest that
dietary L-carnitine supplementation significantly improve testes
histological traits of drakes. Therefore, L-carnitine can be used as
beneficial tool for improving reproductive performance of male birds.
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