Effect of Semen Quality on Fertility in Turkeys

Estimation of progressive motility of individual male turkeys from commercial flocks range from 1 to 80% with approximately 40% of the samples being rated below 40% motile. It is postulated that the poor quality semen from this large number of males may adversely affect fertility. The fertility trial reported here was designed to test this hypothesis. PROCEDURE One hundred sixty males were placed on 14 hours of light on March 1. After three weeks on the stimulatory light regime, the semen from each male was collected by aspiration into 2 ml. of Pipes-Tris buffer (Table 1) in a 5 ml. ampule. The ampule was capped and immediately placed in crushed ice. At the time of collection the semen quality was visually rated 1-3 with 3 being the highest quality. This was a subjective rating based on the appearance of the semen (i.e., color, density, volume) as it was collected. At…