SEMINAL CONCENTRATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS OF TRACE ELEMENTS IN ANIMAL SEMEN

The copper concentration is significantly higher in rams (2.49 ± 0.18 mg/kg wet weight) and foxes (2.16 ± 0.53 mg/kg w.w.) in comparison with bulls (1.64 ± 0.21 mg/kg w.w.), boars (1.64 ± 0.28 mg/kg w.w.) and stallions (0.86 mg/kg w.w.). In boar semen significantly higher zinc concentration (171.74 ± 65.72 mg/kg w.w.) in comparison with stallion (86.20 ± 45.88 mg/kg w.w.), bull (83.15 ± 61.61 mg/kg w.w.), ram (60.46 ± 35.37 mg/kg w.w.) and fox semen (13.09 mg/kg w.w.) was found. Iron concentration in semen is higher in rams (40.32 ± 10.81 mg/kg w.w.), bulls (38.04 ± 22.07 mg/kg w.w.) and foxes (33.16 ± 24.36 mg/kg w.w.) and significantly lower in boar (16.14 ± 10.35 mg/kg w.w.) and stallion (12.68 mg/kg w.w.) semen. Concentration of cadmium is in all studied species relatively low (0.05 – 0.12 mg/kg w.w.). The highest lead concentration in ram semen (0.35 ± 0.68 mg/kg w.w.) is reported. The level of lead is in fox semen 0.08 ± 0.06 mg/kg w.w., in bull semen 0.06 ± 0.04 mg/kg w.w., in stallions 0.05 ± 0.05 mg/kg w.w. and in boar semen 0.02 ± 0.03 mg/kg w.w. The level of nickel is significantly higher in fox (0.35 ± 0.24 mg/kg w.w.), and ram (0.31 ± 0.19 mg/kg w.w.) semen in comparison with bull (0.12 ± 0.07 mg/kg w.w.) and boar semen (0.06 ± 0.08 mg/kg w.w.). The concentration of nickel in the semen of stallions is 0.20 ± 0.24 mg/kg w.w. Correlation analysis determined high positive relation between iron and zinc in bull (r=0.723) and stallion (r=0.723) semen, between cadmium and lead in ram (r=0.976) and boar (r=0.973) semen and between iron and cadmium (r=0.783) and iron and lead (r=0.791) in boar semen. High negative correlation between nickel and copper in ram (r=-0.709) and between copper and lead in fox semen (-0.854) was found.