The proportion of honey, royal jelly (RJ), egg yolk (EY) and tris-citric-glucose (TCG) extender for the extension of New Zealand White (NZW) rabbit semen at room temperature was studied. The effect of bee honey and RJ on the motility, viability, abnormalities and fertilizing capacity of NZW rabbit spermatozoa was performed in the present work. Pooled semen was processed in a TCG extender containing ascending concentrations of bee honey (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7.5 and 10%) and descending concentrations (v/v) of egg yolk (20. 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 12.5 and 10%) for extenders 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, respectively. RJ was added to tris-buffer extender with 2% bee honey and 18% egg yolk (EY), the concentrations (w/v) of RJ were 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 100 mg/ 6mL diluent for extenders 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, respectively. Dilution rate of semen to extenders was 1:5(v/v) with final concentration of 30×106 spermatozoa/ 0.5 ml diluted semen. Semen samples were stored in aliquots at room temperature up to 96 h. Diluted semen was evaluated at 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h after storage. Fertilizing capacity (pregnancy rate, PR% and litter size/doe, LS) of semen was examined at 0, 24 and 48 h after storage at room temperature.
Obtained results showed that the addition of bee honey and RJ in rabbit semen extenders could maintain both semen quality (progressive motility, viability and abnormalities of spermatozoa) and fertilizing capacity (PR and LS) for at least 2 days when stored at room temperature. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggested that the addition of bee honey and RJ in rabbit semen extenders maintained both semen quality and fertilizing capacity when stored at room temperature for 48 h, which would facilitate commercial diluted semen distribution.
Conclusively, these results concluded that NZW rabbit semen diluted with extenders contained bee honey and RJ could be used safely within two days for AI when stored at room temperature. The previous results showed a significant positive effect on the quality of stored semen, which would facilitate commercial diluted semen distribution.