Testicular/ Epididymal Morphometry of Rabbit Bucks Experimentally Infected with Trypanosoma Brucei Brucei.

Abstract

The effects of experimental infection with Trypanosoma brucei brucei on testicular/epididymal morphometry of 20 adult male rabbits (bucks) were determined over a 12 weeks study period. Ten rabbit bucks were infected with 1 ml of the parasites containing 1 X 10⁶ trypanosomes, while the other 10 bucks served as control post-infection. At the end of the experiment, two bucks from each of the groups were sacrificed and their testes were harvested for the determination of testicular/epididymal morphometry. The mean paired testicular weights for the control and the infected rabbit bucks were 1.81 ± 0.11 g and 1.82 ± 0.05 g. The mean paired epididymal weights of the control and the infected rabbit bucks were 3.19 ± 0.03 g and 2.83 ± 0.18 g, respectively. The mean paired testicular lengths for the control rabbit bucks were 8.09 ± 0.56 g, while the mean paired testicular lengths for the infected rabbit bucks were 7.79 ± 0.71 g respectively. This study has shown that T. brucei brucei is pathogenic to rabbit bucks causing serious reproductive disorders thereby exerting a negative effect on rabbit production and the socio-economic wellbeing of the tsetse endemic areas in the country and that the animals could serve as reservoirs of infection to other animals.