Modulatory effects of ascorbic acid on the reproductive pathologic changes caused by experimental Trypanosoma brucei infection in Nigerian indigenous adult male sus scrofa

African animal trypanosomosis is a hemoparasitic disease caused by the protozoan parasite, trypanosoma. Tsetse flies (Glossina species) and biting flies transmit the parasite. Trypanosomosis infects humans as well as livestock. 
The reproductive pathological changes and the effects of ascorbic acid were investigated in Nigerian indigenous boars experimentally infected with Trypanosoma brucei. A total of fifteen boars were used for the experiment and assigned into three groups of five animals each. Group I was infected with T. brucei and treated with ascorbic acid at the dosage of 150 mg per kg per os. Group II was infected with T. brucei only. Group III (uninfected control) were administered normal saline.
Acute trypanosomosis was observed following infection. The testes were harvested and the epididymal sperm reserves of all the boars determined. Also, the sperm quality (sperm motility, concentration, and morphology) was determined. Epidydimal sperm parameters were significantly low (p < 0.05) but abnormal morphologies were higher in the infected when compared to the control group but gradually improved following treatment with ascorbic acid. The low serum testosterone levels observed from day post infection (pi) gradually improved following treatment. The gross morphological studies of the testes of the boars shows testicular atrophy in the infected groups relative to the control and there was remission in the group treated with ascorbic acid. It was therefore concluded that infection of boars with T. brucei adversely affected testicular morphology and function. Treatment with ascorbic abrogated the reproductive abnormalities caused by the parasite.