Effects of Vitamin E Addition to Chicken Semen on Sperm Quality During in Vitro Storage of Semen

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the probable effects of the vitamin E addition in different levels to the extender of chicken semen on spermatozoa quality during storage of semen at 4°C for 0, 3, 6, 10 and 24 hours. Eight young Ross broiler breeder strain 308 roosters were used in this experiment. The collected semen from all roosters was mixed together and diluted with modified a Ringer’s solution. The diluted pooled semen was divided into 5 treatments (T). T1 was a control group without any vitamin E addition. For T2 to T5 groups 0.5 %, 1 %, 2 % and 3 % vitamin E (w/v), were added respectively. Treatments were evaluated for sperm motility, sperm viability and probable morphological defects after 0, 3, 6, 10 and 24 hours of incubation at 4°C. The evaluations of spermatozoa immediately after semen collection, were revealed no significant differences among values of treatment groups, whereas after incubating the treatments for different spans of time, the sperm progressive motility and viability rates for groups supplemented with vitamin E were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that of the control group. In addition, morphological defect rates of chicken spermatozoa in the groups supplemented with different levels of vitamin E were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than that in control group. According to the results of this study we conclude that, the most excellent level of vitamin E for supplementation to the extended semen of chicken in order to improve the sperm motility and viability plus to reduce the morphological defect rates of the spermatozoa up to 24 hours storage time at 4°C is 2 % (w/v).