reproductive effects of dietary soy phytoestrogens, genistein and equol on farmed female beluga, huso huso

in this study, 54 five-year-old farmed female beluga at stage ii of sexual maturation were treated with 0 (control), 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 g of dietary soy equol (eq) and genistein (ge) per each kilogram (kg) of diet during a year. blood samples were collected and ovarian biopsy was performed quarterly. results showed that 64.4% of the huso huso sexually matured at eq 0.4 g/kg and reached stage iv of sexual maturation. oocytes diameters increased significantly at all concentrations of eq and 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8 concentrations of ge and reached a maximum (3 ± 0.2 mm) at 0.4 g/kg eq concentration at the end of experiment (p