title: Increased fecundity resulting from semen donor selection based upon in vitro sperm motility.
abstract: Semen donors were selected from a population of 100 roosters based upon the extent to which sperm penetrated 6% (wt/vol) Accudenz from an overlay of extended semen. Semen donors categorized by average or high sperm motility (n = 5 per phenotype) were ejaculated weekly, their ejaculates pooled by phenotype, and pooled semen extended. A subsample of each sperm suspension was overlaid on 6% (wt/vol) Accudenz in a cuvette, the cuvette was placed in a 41 C water bath, and the absorbance of the Accudenz layer was measured after a 5-min incubation. The remainder of the sperm suspension was inseminated (n = 55 hens per phenotype). Each hen was inseminated weekly with 50 x 10(6) sperm for 14 wk. The hatchability of eggs laid by hens inseminated with sperm from the high motility phenotype was 10% greater (P < or = 0.001) than that of hens inseminated with sperm from the average phenotype. The difference in fecundity was explicable in terms of fertility (P < or = 0.001). A replicate experiment tested the effect of sperm motility as well as insemination dose on fertility. Roosters were treated as above, and hens (n = 41 to 45 per phenotype) were inseminated weekly with 25, 50, or 100 x 10(6) sperm per hen for 3 wk. Two-way ANOVA detected a sperm motility effect (P < or = 0.0001) but did not detect a dose effect (P > or = 0.05) or a motility by dose interaction (P > or = 0.05). A posteriori comparison among means revealed that the maximal fertility obtained with sperm from average roosters was 9% less (P < or = 0.05) than that obtained with only 25% as many sperm from the high motility phenotype. These experiments demonstrated that the fecundity of artificially inseminated hens can be increased when sperm penetration of Accudenz is used as a selection criterion for semen donors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331, USA.
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Froman
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Feltmann
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: McLean
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility / Q000502:physiology*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007315:Insemination, Artificial / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D013081:Sperm Motility / Q000502:physiology*; D013084:Sperm-Ovum Interactions; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000502:physiology*