Effect of nutritional stress on physiological parameters and seminal attributes of native-crossbred ram in semi-arid tropics

A prolific three-breed (Malpura, Patanwadi, and Garole) cross Avishaan sheep has been developed in the semi-arid zone to improve farmer’s income. Nutritional scarcity is a major limitation in animal husbandry during the dearth period of semi-arid tropics. Therefore, before the inaugural launch of the breed into the field, a study was designed to evaluate the effect of nutritional stress on physiological parameters and seminal attributes of native-crossbred rams in semi-arid tropics. Thus, 16 native adapted (Malpura) and 16 native-crossbred rams were equally distributed into four groups, namely, native control (G1), native nutritional stress (G2), native-crossbred control (G3), and native-crossbred nutritional stress (G4). Both the control groups (G1 and G3) were kept on their maintenance requirement as per their body weight, whereas the nutritional stress groups (G2 and G4) were provided 30% less than their maintenance requirement. The body weight of G4 decline ( P