Effects of Age on the Physical Semen Characteristics of Arbor Acres Broilers under Sudan Conditions

Background and objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of age on semen characteristics of arbor acres cocks reared in Sudan.

Materials and Methods: One day old ten male broiler chicks were randomly selected and reared in cages. Temperature was adjusted at 25Cᵒ and photostimulation program of arbor acres breeder was applied. They were fed pre-starter ration in the first week, starter ration in 2-5 weeks , growing ration in 6-18 weeks, pre-production ration 19-23 weeks and production ration 24- 42 weeks of age . Semen samples were weekly collected from the 22nd week up to 42th .Semen samples were evaluated for color, volume (SV), sperm mass motility (MM), percent of individual motility percent (IMP), live sperm (LSP), concentration (SC) and abnormal sperm percent (ASP).

Results: Out of the 230 samples obtained ,197 (85.65%) were creamy and 27 (11.74%) were white milky in consistency, the other 6 (2.61%) samples were turbid and watery. The mean values obtained for SV (0.29±0.02 ml), MM (2.25±0.63) in the 26th week of age were significantly higher compared to the initial collection values (0.24±0.12/ml), (1.75±0.54 ) respectively where they tended to decrease gradually with advanced age . However, at the 30th weeks of age the values obtained for IMP (81.62±9.36), LSP (87.70±4.15) and SC (3.21±1.62) were higher, compared to the initial values and decreased with advanced age thereafter. The values obtained for ASP in the 22nd week of age were significantly higher (9.63±4.26) compared to the following values up to the end of the experiment where a general pattern of reduction was observed.

Conclusions: It is concluded that semen characteristics of Arbor Acres cocks reared in Sudan are within the normal range and are adversely affected by advanced age.