Fertilizing Ability and Laboratory Evaluation of Ejaculated and Vasa Deferentia Semen in Turkeys

STUDIES on semen taken from the vasa deferentia would be more meaningful in terms of application to the development of a satisfactory diluent, if it could be demonstrated that such semen possessed fertilizing ability equal to or greater than ejaculated semen. Furthermore, testing the fertilizing ability of this semen contributes information helpful in interpreting the function of the vasa deferentia. Lau (1894) was one of the first investigators to make a study of the viability of the spermatozoa in the vasa deferentia of the cock. In his experiment, males were castrated and then sacrified at various times up to 24 days. Lau found that some spermatozoa were still alive and exhibited feeble movement as long as 24 days after castration. Munro (1935) reported that spermatozoa removed from the testes and epididymis had very low fertilizing ability (0.8 and 3.6%, respectively), while those from the vasa deferentia exhibited higher fertility (62.2%)….