Dietary Fish Oil Can Change Sperm Parameters and Fatty Acid Profiles of Ram Sperm During Oil Consumption Period and After Removal of Oil Source

Objective: the effects of dietary fish oil on semen quality and sperm fatty acid profilesduring consumption of n-3 fatty acids as well as the persistency of fatty acids in ram’ssperm after removing dietary oil from the diet were investigated.materials and methods: in this experimental study, we randomly assigned 9 zandi rams to twogroups (isoenergetic and isonitrogenous diets): control (ctr; n=5) and fish oil (fo; n=4) for 70days with a constant level of vitamin e in both groups. semen was collected at the first weekand at the last week of the feeding period (phase 1). after the feeding period, all rams werefed a conventional diet and semen samples were collected one and two months after removalof fo (phase 2). the sperm parameters and fatty acid profiles were measured by computerassisted semen analyzer (casa) and gas chromatography (gc), respectively. the completelyrandomized design was used and data were analyzed with spss version 16.results: dietary fo had significant positive effects on all sperm quality and quantity parameterscompared with the ctr during the feeding period (p < 0.05). the positive effectsof fo on sperm concentration and total sperm output were observed at one and twomonths after removal of fo (p < 0.05), whereas other sperm parameters were unaffected.before feeding, c14 (myristic acid), c16 (palmitic acid), c18 (stearic acid), c18:1 (oleicacid) and c22:6 (docosahexaenoic acid: dha) were the primary sperm fa. fo in the dietincreased sperm dha, c14:0 and c18:0 during the feeding period (p < 0.05).conclusion: the present study showed not only manipulation of ram sperm fatty acidprofiles by dietary fo and sperm parameters during the feeding period, but also the persistencyof unique effects of dietary omega-3 fatty acids up to two months following itsremoval from the diet. also, we recommend that sperm fatty acid profiles should be comprehensivelyanalyzed and monitored.