Evaluation of antioxidant properties of selenium nutritional sources on sperm quality of birds challenged with acute stress

This experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of different sources of selenium in daily feed intake (intrinsic effect) on roosters’ semen under oxidative stress in 28 week-old Ross broiler breeder roosters.

A total of 24 birds were divided into 4 experimental groups and 6 birds per replicate in a completely randomized design. Experimental groups included: 1) control group (Con) without any treatment, 2) as control group but birds were administrated with Dexamethasone (Dex), 3) as group 2 + birds consumed selenomethionine as organic selenium (0.3 mg Se/kg of feed intake) (OSe+Dex) and 4) similar to group 3 but birds consumed Sodium Selenite as the inorganic source instead of an organic one. Oxidative stress stimulation was induced by injecting dexamethasone (0.4 mg/kg BW) 3 times every other day for 1 week.

Consumption of selenium sources, especially organic form, resulted in higher total and progressive sperm motility, sperm viability, and membrane integrity (99.56, 59.06, 87.75, and 88.97%, respectively), versus Con (79.4, 42.53, 78.33 and 80.78%, respectively) and Dex (62.2, 27.03, 73.57 and 71.92%, respectively) (P<0.05). Also, the profile of biochemical parameters such as Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC), Glutathione Peroxidase (GPX), and Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD) in the groups OSe+Dex (146.5, 85.91 and 1.55 U/ml, respectively) and ISe+Dex (122.54, 63.28 and 1.37 U/ml, respectively) were better than Con (121.78, 65.27 and 1.26 U/ml, respectively) and Dex groups (108.62, 52.51 and 1.05 U/ml, respectively) (P<0.05).

Overall, it seems an organic form of selenium resulted in better semen properties than inorganic form.