Concentration of copper, zinc, iron, cadmium, lead and nickel in the semen of stallions (n = 10) and its relation to spermatozoa quality was investigated. Samples were analyzed on the atomic absorption spectro-photometer (Unicam Solar 939). The analysis of copper in semen showed that the concentration is 0.86 ± 0.10 mg/kg. The zinc concentration is 86.20 ± 45.88 mg/kg and the iron concentration is 12.68 ± 9.09 mg/kg. Concentration of cadmium is relatively low (0.09 ± 0.10 mg/kg). The concentration of lead in stallion is 0.05 +-0.05 mg/kg and that of nickel is 0.20 +- 0.24 mg/kg. The total percentage of pathological spermatozoa was 17.09 ± 3.66%. From this total number, 4.93% had knob-twisted flagellum, 4.71% separated flagellum, 1.60% flagellum torso, 0.87% broken flagellum, 0.78% retention of the cytoplasmic drop, 0.74% acrosomal changes, 0.67% large heads, 0.51% small heads, 0.34% flagellum ball and 1.94% forms other of pathological changes. Correlation analysis showed significantly (p < 0.05) positive correlation between iron and cadmium (r = 0.78), iron and lead (r = 0.79), iron and nickel (r - 0.74) and between cadmium and lead (r - 0.97). High correlation between copper and flagellum torso (r = -0.77), zinc and total number of pathological spermatozoa (r = 0.86), zinc and flagellum torso (r = 0.89), iron and total number of pathological spermatozoa (r = 0.70), iron and flagellum ball (r = 0.91), cadmium and separated flagellum (r = 0.82), lead and total number of pathological spermatozoa (r = 0.71) and between lead and separated flagellum (r = 0.85) was determined. Generally, our results suggest that there are very significant effects of various trace elements in stallion semen which directly effect the spermatozoa quality.
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