Effects of Varying Levels of Dietary Citric Acid on Semen Characteristics and Reproductive Tract Morphometry of Rabbit Bucks

Thirty (30) weaner rabbit bucks at 10 weeks old were used to investigate the effects of the varying levels of dietary citric acid on reproductive parameters of rabbit bucks. The rabbits were divided randomly into five dietary groups and assigned to five treatments tagged T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 containing 0.00, 0.75, 1.50, 2.25 and 3.00% synthetic citric acid in the rabbit diets respectively. Each group had six rabbit bucks with one rabbit constituting a replicate. Semen samples were collected on the 111th day of the experiment and semen characteristics evaluated. Subsequently, 6 animals randomly selected per treatment were sacrificed and their reproductive tract morphometry evaluated. The results of the semen characteristics obtained revealed that there were no significant differences (P>0.05) in the values obtained across the dietary groups. The right testis weight, paired testis weight, right testis volume, left epididymis weight, paired epididymis weight, right epididymis length, right vas deferens weight, left vas deferens weight and paired vas deferens weight were significantly different (P<0.05) among the treatment groups. From the results obtained, it could be concluded that the inclusion of citric acid in the diets of rabbit bucks up to 3.00% did not cause detrimental effects on the testicular growth and semen characteristics of rabbit bucks.