EFFECTS OF RESIDUAL CYANIDE ON TESTICULAR AND SPERM CHARACTERISTICS OF RABBIT BUCKS FED DIETS CONTAINING PROCESSED CASSAVA PEEL/BLOOD MEAL MIXTURES

Forty (40) Cross – bred, (New Zealand white X Chinchilla) male weaner rabbits of between 6 and 8 weeks of age were used to investigate the effect of pre-treatment methods as well as the inclusion levels of cassava peel/blood meal mixture (3:2) on development of reproductive organs and semen characteristics. Three types of cassava peels treatment were compared. Ten experimental diets were formulated with diet 1 serving as the control without cassava peel/blood meal mixture. Diets 2, 3, and 4 had 10, 20 and 30% inclusion of ash treated cassava peels/blood meal mixture. Diets 5, 6 and 7 had 10, 20 and 30% parboiled cassava peel/blood meal mixture while diets 8, 9 and 10 had 10, 20 and 30% simply sun dried cassava peels/blood meal mixture. The rabbits were divided after weight balancing into 10 treatments groups of four rabbits each and assigned randomly to the ten diets with each rabbit serving as a replicate in a randomized complete block design experiment.  Rabbits received feed and water ad libitum during the 12 weeks of the experiment. The testis width, volume and weight were significantly ( P <0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments. The paired testes weight (1.53 g and 1.51 g) for the control and PAB-BM diets respectively were similar and significantly ( P <0.05) higher than 1.39 and 1.37g for ATD-BM and SUD-BM respectively. The paired testes volume and paired testes weight were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the levels of inclusion. The sperm motility, sperm concentration, progressivity and percent deformity were significantly ( P <0.05) influenced by the dietary treatments. Rabbits fed with the control diet had the highest ( P <0.05) sperm motility (76.25%) compared to ATD-BM (64.00%), PAB-BM (60.69%) and SUD-BM (55.40). Rabbits fed the control diet had the highest sperm concentration of 46.50x10 6 /mm 3 , which was significantly ( P < 0.05) higher than 26.76, 27.80 and 18.59 x 10 6 /mm 3 obtained in those fed with ATD-BM, PAB-BM and SUD/BM, respectively. The percentage deformity differed significantly (P<0.05) across the treatment groups. Rabbits fed the control diet had the lowest (P<0.05) deformed sperm cells (6.5%) compared with ATD-BM, PAB-BM and SUD-BM which had 9.31, 8.19 and 8.50%, respectively. Sperm motility in rabbits fed the control diet (76.25%) was similar to 67.04% obtained in rabbits fed 10% processed CPM/BM but higher ( P <0.05) than those fed 20% and 30% inclusion levels of CPM/BM mixtures. Sperm concentration decreased linearly with increasing levels of CPM/BM mixture from 0 to 30%. Percent sperm deformity was highest at 30% inclusion level and lowest at 0% level. Sperm progressivity decreased ( P <0.05) with increasing levels of inclusion.It was concluded that residual cyanide had negative effects on reproductive potential of rabbit bucks