Effects of gossypol on semen characteristics in teddy male goats

In the present study, the effects of gossypol on semencharacteristics in Teddy male goats were studied. Nine Teddy male goatswere randomly divided into three equal groups named A, B and C.Animals in all groups were fed concentrated ration without cottonseedcakes (CSC) at the rate of 3 percent of their live weight for a period of30 days and it was named as pre-treatment period. Just after thecompletion of this period, animals in group A were fed control ration(without gossypol), those in group B were fed ration which containedunboiled CSC as a source of free and bound gossypol, while animals ingroup C were given ration containing CSC boiled at 100 degree C for 1hour as a source of bound gossypol. These experimental rations were fedto animals of respective groups at the rate of 3 percent of their liveweight for a period of 90 days and it was named as treatment period.Feeding of ration containing gossypol to Teddy male goats did not affectthe colour, volume, mass activity, sperm concentration, percentage ofdead spermatozoa, live ability and absolute index of live ability ofspermatozoa at 37 degree C. However, it affected significantly (P lessthan 0.05) the pH, per cent motility of spermatozoa and percentage ofmorphologically abnormal spermatozoa. The Teddy male goats fed rationscontaining a combination of free and bound gossypol showed asignificant (P less than 0.05) increase in the pH and a decrease inmotility of spermatozoa which was statistically lower than those fedcontrol diet or diet containing bound gossypol. It was concluded thatrations containing a combination of free and bound gossypol (unboiledCSC) or bound gossypol only (boiled CSC) adversely affected the semenquality of Teddy male goats in terms of sperm motility andmorphologically abnormal spermatozoa in ejaculates.