The Effect of Oral Administration of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on Quantitative and Qualitative Properties of Arabic Ram Sperm and Some Antioxidant Parameters of Seminal Plasma in the Non-Breeding Season

Zinc is an essential mineral and accepted as a trace element in the animal nutrition and for its role in biological enzymatic pathways. This study aimed to investigate the effect of oral administration of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) on some of the antioxidant parameters of semen plasma, quantitative and qualitative properties of Arabic ram sperm in the non-breeding season. Twelve adult Arabic rams (about 3-5 years old, 70 ±2.1 kg) were randomly assigned to receive one of the three levels of dietary ZnONPs (control; 0, group 1; 40 ppm and group 2; 80 ppm). Results showed that using different levels of ZnONPs increased the activity of superoxide dismutase enzyme (SOD) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of semen plasma significantly compared  with the control group (P