Rabbit meat is considered as an economic source of white meat, increasing its production is limited by the buck fertility, since one rabbit can be used to inseminate up to 15 female. The aim of the current study is to enhance male rabbit fertility by using dietary antioxidants including Aloe vera gel (AVG) and pomegranate peels (PP). In a 60 days experiment, 48 V‐Line 5‐month‐old rabbit bucks of average body weight (2,300 ± 20) kg were allocated into four dietary treatments (n = 12/group) as follow: CON (fed on control diet), ALOE (received AVG in drinking water; 500 mg/L drinking water), POM3 (fed on basal diet + 3% of pomegranate) and POM5 (fed on basal diet + 5% of pomegranate). Semen samples were collected at d30 and d60 of the experiment and used for analysis of semen quality. Sexual behaviour was reported in terms of latency to first mating and ejaculation interval. At the end of the experiment, six bucks were euthanized from each group, blood samples were collected and used for testosterone level determination and testicular tissue samples were collected and used for key antioxidant and spermatogenesis enzymes assessment, and testes histopathological evaluation. The UNIVARIATE procedures of SAS 9.4 were used to analyse the data, significance was declared at p ≤.05. PP supplementation improved percentage of progressive motile sperms while AVG negatively impacted it (p = .04), sperm concentration and metabolically active sperm cells were the highest in PP and lowest in ALOE supplemented bucks (p = .01 and .01; respectively). Testicular alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) decreased in AVG supplemented group (p = .01 and .02; respectively). From our findings, AVG in its fresh form decreased fertility of rabbit bucks, while PP is potent fertility boosting for rabbit bucks.

As optimization of farm animals reproductive performance is a main objective, the present study was, undertaken to investigate the possible protective effect of vitamin C, vitamin E and olive pomace against dizocilpine (MK-801) induced oxidative stress and its resultant alterations on antioxidant status, spermiogram, hormonal, enzyme markers and histomorphology of testes of rabbit bucks during first and second month of the experiment. For this purpose thirty six male New Zealand White rabbits bucks were equally and randomly divided into six groups (6 in each) namely control injected with 1.0 ml sterile saline; second group was injected by dizocilpine at a dose 0.1 mg/kg. intraperitoneally (i.p.) for 5 consecutive days, the third group was subjected to dizocilpine and supplemented with "vitamin C" (1 g/L of drinking water) 1 g contain 100 I.U. vit C, while the forth group was subjected to dizocilpine and supplemented with "vitamin E" (50 ml/100 L of drinking water,1ml contain 20 I.U. vit E,) and those of the fifth group were supplemented with "vitamin C" plus "vitamin E". All five groups were fed the same basal diet, while the sixth group was subjected to dizocilpine and fed diet which contains olive cake meal (10%). Results in first month revealed (1) significant decrease in spermiogram, antioxidative parameters, testicular estradiol, testosterone, enzyme markers and clear pathological changes in testes of dizocilpine group; (2) Significant improvement in the measured parameters of groups subjected to dizocilpine and supplemented with "vitamin E", "vitamin C" and olive pomace; (3) significant increase of all measured parameters in the "vitamin C" plus "vitamin E" supplemented group. On the other hand, results at second month showed no difference between all groups in these parameters. Conclusively, it was obvious that the supplementation with vitamin C or/and vitamin E and olive pomace to male rabbits exposed to oxidative stress was associated with improved spermiogram, anti-oxidative parameters, hormonal and testicular enzymatic activities.

The current study aimed to investigate the effects of pomegranate peel and olive pomace supplementation on the reproductive hormones, antioxidative status, reproductive capacity and maternal behaviour of rabbit does. Forty does were used for the experiments. The animals were randomly assigned to four groups of ten does.One group was fed on the control diet and was considered the control group (C). The second group was supplemented with 4.5% pomegranate peel in their diet (P), the third group was supplemented with 10% olive pomace in their diet (O), and the fourth group was supplemented with a mixture of pomegranate peel and olive pomace (PO).Compared with the control does, group P showed significantly increased serum levels of gonadotropic hormones and oestradiol-17β two hours after mating, on the 20th day of lactation and after weaning; significantly increased progesterone levels at midpregnancy; and significantly increased in prolactin levels on the 10th day of lactation.Additionally, the results revealed significant increases in total DNA, protein concentration, litter size, milk yield and nest traits of groups P and PO. In conclusion, pomegranate peel supplementation improves the reproductive performance of does and increases their antioxidant parameters.

Pumpkin seed (PS) oil is antioxidant that can provide a scavenging effect on reactive oxygen species produced during gametogenesis. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of 0.5% dietary PS oil supplementation on rabbit reproductive performance. A total of 20 mature bucks and 48 nulliparous does were used in a 72 days experiment. Rabbits were divided into two groups: Control group (CON-M ¼ 10 bucks; CON-F ¼ 24 does) and PSO group (PSO-M ¼ 10 bucks; PSO-F ¼ 24 does), blood samples were collected and analysed for serum total antioxidant capacity (TAC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Bucks and does were cross-mated on d30 to have 4 female groups: (1) CON-C (CON-F Â CON-M), (2) CON-P (CON-F Â PSO-M), (3) PSO-C (PSO-F Â CON-M) and (4) PSO-P (PSO-F Â PSO-M). Doe serum oestradiol and progesterone were assessed on days 0, 14, 26 and 32 after mating. Bucks serum testosterone and oestradiol were also assessed. Reproductive performance and litter size and weight were recorded, semen samples were collected from bucks for 6 successive weeks and assessed for semen quality. PS oil increased the level of TAC (p ¼ .05) and decreased total MDA (p ¼ .04) in both sexes. The percentage of sperm abnormality was decreased in PS oil-fed bucks (p ¼ .04), PS oil did not alter the reproductive performance of the does including litter size and litter birth weight (p > .05). In conclusion, PS oil improved buck fertility. The antioxidant effect of PS oil was remarkable in both sexes. HIGHLIGHTS Pumpkin seed (PS) oil improved the semen quality of rabbit bucks. PS oil increased antioxidant capacity in both rabbit buck and doe. PS oil did not impact the reproductive performance of rabbits.

The present study was designed to investigate pumpkin seed oil's effect on body weight, digestive enzymes' activity, and the metabolic and antioxidant parameters of growing rabbits. This study was performed using two groups of 8-weeks old New Zealand White rabbits (NZW) (n=10/ each group). The experiment lasted for eight weeks. The animals were divided randomly to either the control group and fed on a basal diet (C) or the experimental with a basal diet supplemented with 5 g pumpkin seed oil/kg diet (P). Results revealed a significant increase in body weight, blood glucos levels, total lipids and total protein, and serum amylase activities, lipase, and protease. Significant improvements in the antioxidative parameters of rabbits were also observed. In conclusion, the benefits shown in this study support further research into the use of dietary supplementation with pumpkin oil for increasing productivity in growing rabbits.