Performance, sperm production and ejaculate characteristics of Marshall broiler breeder cocks fed varying salt inclusions and supplemental acetylsalicylic acid

Abstract

Sixteen Marshall Broiler breeder cocks with an average body weight of 3.30 kg were used to determine the performance and ejaculate characteristics to varied levels of supplemental acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and dietary salt (NaCl) inclusions. Four diets were formulated and labelled T1 (the control 0.25% NaCl and 0.00% ASA), T2 (0.50% NaCl and 0.025% ASA), T3 (0.75% NaCl and 0.050% ASA) and T4 (1.00% NaCl and 0.075% ASA). The cocks were randomly distributed into four treatments with four replicates in each treatment and fed for sixteen weeks. The semen was collected once a week in the last six weeks of the trial. The performance parameters did not vary significantly (P>0.05), however, there was a significant difference (P<0.05) in the feed conversion ratio with birds fed diet T3 (11.66 ± 1.12) having the best conversion. The ejaculate parameters and hypo-osmotic swelling (HOS) did not vary significantly (P>0.05). Significant differences (P<0.05) were observed in the acrosome integrity where birds fed T4 (78.50 ± 5.58%) had the highest mean value while T3 had the lowest percentage of dead sperm cells. In conclusion, 0.750% NaCl worked synergistically with 0.050% ASA to improve the feed conversion ratio and sperm cell viability while 1.00% NaCl with 0.0750% ASA improved the acrosome integrity of breeder cocks.