Effects of combination therapy of Bridelia ferruginea stem bark and diminazene aceturate on testicular and haematological changes in Trypanosoma brucei infected male rats

The study was done to assess the ameliorative effects of co-administration of methanol extract of Bridelia ferruginea stem bark and diminazene aceturate on trypanosomosis induced testicular and haematological changes in infected male rat. Twenty five male rats were used in the study and assigned into five groups (n=5). Trypanosoma brucei was inoculated into Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 rats except Group 5. Diminazene aceturate (7 mg/kg) was administered to group 1. Methanol extract of B. ferruginea (20 mg/kg) was administered to Group 2.  Diaminazine aceturate (7 mg/kg) and B. Ferruginea (20 mg/kg) were administered to Group 3. The infected and untreated rats constituted Group 4. The normal control was Group 5. Parameters assessed were weight of the testicles, testicular sperm and epididymal sperm counts, packed cell volume, haemoglobin concentration and red blood and white blood cell counts. At the end of the experiment, there were significant increases in the testicular sperm (56.40±4.55) and epididymal sperm counts (24.34 ± 0.5) of group 3 compared to Group 2 – testicular sperm reserve (51.34 ± 6.19), epididymal sperm reserve (19.38 ± 4.14) and Group 1 – testicular sperm reserve (54.01± 6.92), epididymal sperm reserve (20 ± 5.79). The WBC was significantly higher in infected untreated (13. 70 ± 5.15) compared to Groups 1 (10.96 ± 1.21), 2 (10.36 ± 2.09) and 3 (10.55 ± 0.49). The results above showed that co-administration of diminazene aceturate and B. ferruginea extract produced optimum ameliorative effect. Key words: Bridelia ferruginea, diminazene aceturate, testicular changes, trypanosomosis.