BACKGROUND: In traditional medicine in some Asian countries, including Iran, there is a belief that camphor is a suppressor of sexual activity. Not only has the validity of this hypothesis not been established, but also studies in this field are very limited.  OBJECTIVES: In this study, we investigated the effects of camphor on sperm quality in mice, and to protect sperm damage vitamin E as an antioxidant was used. METHODS: This study was conducted on 30 adult male mice (balb/c) with weight range 20-25 gr in 5 groups. First group was control (CO) and treated with normal saline,  groups  2 and 3 were sham groups treated respectively with Olive oil (OL) and the combination of olive oil and vitamin E (OL+E), and finally, two experimental groups were treated using camphor (CA) and camphor with vitamin E (CA+E). Camphor at doses of 30 mg/kg/day and vitamin E at doses of 100 mg/kg/day were prepared. All materials were administered orally (gavage). After 35 days semen were collected from tail of epididymis, and then total count, motility, viability, nuclear maturity, and DNA damage were examined. RESULTS: Results showed significant reduction in sperm total count, percentage of viability, increase in  the number of immature sperms and  no significant difference in rate of motile sperms and sperms with damaged DNA in groups that received Camphor was observed. Vitamin E as a strong antioxidant administered lightly was able to reduce the effects of  Camphor on viable and mature sperms (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that Camphor could affect on mice sperm quality and vitamin E as an antioxidant,  was able to slightly reduce Camphor effects in sperm quality.

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the pathological effects of experimental trypanosomosis on the semen collection reaction time and spermatozoa morphology of Yankasa rams. Materials and Methods: Twelve apparently healthy Yankasa rams aging 24-30 months and weighing 22-25 Kg were randomly selected and were distributed into four (4) groups. Groups I and II were challenged with experimental Trypanosoma brucei brucei (Federe strain) and T. evansi (Sokoto strain) respectively, while group III was challenged with both T. brucei brucei and T. evansi parasites. Group IV was left as uninfected control. Each infected ram received 2 mL of the infected blood containing 2x106 trypomastigotes via the jugular vein. The animals were examined for clinical observations, reaction time for semen collection and abnormalities in the morphology of the spermatozoa.Results: Infection of rams with trypanosomes showed scrotal edema, scrotal atrophy, loss of libido, increased semen collection reaction time, and significant increase of spermatozoa morphological abnormalities in all the infected rams. The rams especially in groups I and III were all deemed unfit for breeding by the end of the 98 days post infection, while the uninfected rams remained as healthy and had normal values of sperm morphology throughout the study period. Conclusion: Single or mixed interaction with T. brucei brucei or T. evansi is capable of causing infertility and reproductive failure in Yankasa rams. [J Adv Vet Anim Res 2016; 3(4.000): 360-367]