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Inclusion of cocoa bran in the diet of lambs and its effect on reproductive parameters

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Abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of cocoa bran in the diet of lambs and its effect on reproductive parameters. For this, 40 lambs were randomly assigned to four treatments, and including 0, 10, 20 and 30% levels of cocoa bran in the concentrate. Blood was collected to measure cholesterol and testosterone and semen for physical and morphological evaluation; testicular biometry and morphometry were also evaluated. There was significant difference (P < 0.05) in body weight and tubulosomatic index between the lambs in the control treatment and those in the 30% cocoa bran treatment. There was no difference in testicular biometry, physical and morphological parameters of fresh semen, testicular morphometry, and volumetric ratio between lambs in all the treatments (P < 0.05). In addition, there was no difference in plasma cholesterol or testosterone concentration (P > 0.05). Thus, it is possible to include up to 30% of cocoa bran in diet without affecting the reproductive parameters of lambs.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Ciências Agrárias, Ambientais e Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia, Cruz das Almas (Bahia), Rua Rui Barbosa, 710 Centro, Cruz das Almas, Bahia, 44380-000, Brasil

    Emmanuel Emydio Gomes Pinheiro, Adriana Regina Bagaldo, Maicon Pereira Lents, Mailin Vasconcelos dos Santos Lima, Lopes César Mugabe, Máiron Barreto de Sousa, Ana Lúcia Almeida Santana, Fabiana Lana de Araújo & Larissa Pires Barbosa

Authors
  1. Emmanuel Emydio Gomes Pinheiro
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  2. Adriana Regina Bagaldo
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  3. Maicon Pereira Lents
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  4. Mailin Vasconcelos dos Santos Lima
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  5. Lopes César Mugabe
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  6. Máiron Barreto de Sousa
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  7. Ana Lúcia Almeida Santana
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  8. Fabiana Lana de Araújo
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  9. Larissa Pires Barbosa
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. EEG Pinheiro: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Writing – original draft; AR Bagaldo, MP Lents, MVS Lima, LC Mugabe, MB Sousa, FL Araújo: Investigation, Methodology; ALA Santana: Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, Writing – review & editing; LP Barbosa: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Larissa Pires Barbosa.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was conducted in accordance with the Institutional Committee on Animal Use (23007.003064/2014-10), from the period of March to August 2015.

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The research did not involve humans.

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Pinheiro, E.E.G., Bagaldo, A.R., Lents, M.P. et al. Inclusion of cocoa bran in the diet of lambs and its effect on reproductive parameters. Trop Anim Health Prod 56, 193 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-024-04039-2

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