INFLUENCE OF MELATONIN TREATMENT ON SCROTAL CIRCUMFERENCE AND SEMEN PARAMETERS IN SHALL RAMS ON OUT OF SEASON

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of melatonin on scrotal circumference and semen parameters using 8 shall rams in April until June 2004 (out of season). In the April, the rams were randomly allocated in two groups. Four animal received 3 implants of melatonin tablets (totally 54 mg/ram) at the base of ear and the other 4 rams were considered as control group and kept at the identical circumstances. The scrotal circumference and semen parameters were weekly recorded over of a period of 14 weeks and the data on each variable were compared base on t-test. There was no significant differences between treatment and control group for scrotal circumference (32.8±.83 vs 32.89±0.21 cm), semen volume (0.98±0.31 vs 0.9±.12 ml/ejaculation), mass motility (3.64±0.46 vs 3.1±0.31), individual motility (70 vs 71percent), sperm concentration (2.23±0.39 vs 1.72±0.31 bilion/ml) and live sperm per cent (79 vs 82 percent ) (p>0.05). It was concluded that to use of melatonin would not improve the semen parameters in out of season reproduction assessment of shall