Reproductive performance of rats supplemented with L-carnitine

It has been shown previously that supplementation of sows with l-carnitine increases their reproduction performance. The current study was carried out to investigate if feeding of l-carnitine also affects the reproduction performance of rats. Thirty female rats at 4 weeks of age were divided into two groups. The rats were fed diets with or without l-carnitine (1 g/kg diet) over a period of 34 weeks. After 8 weeks of feeding, the female rats were mated the first time. Two more reproductive cycles followed, with 3-week intervals in between. Body weight development of the females was similar in both groups during the whole experimental period. Number of pregnancies and number of total rat pups, pups born alive and stillborn pups were not influenced by l-carnitine. There was also no influence of dietary l-carnitine on the body weight of individual pups and the litter weights at birth. Weight development of litters differed between both groups on several days, but no uniform effect of l-carnitine was observed. Body weight development of weaned rats fed a commercial diet was different between both groups, but only in one reproduction cycle. In conclusion, this study shows that l-carnitine supplementation does not improve the reproductive performance of rats.