ORCHIDOMETRIC, SEMINAL AND SPERM DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS: A STUDY ON INTERRELATIONSHIPS IN NILI RAVI BUFFALO

Animal conservation and improvement programs for any species or breed require the basic knowledge of its reproductive anatomy, histology and physiology. The present study has been devised with an objective to determine interrelationships between body weight, various orchidometric, fresh seminal, and post thaw seminal attributes for Nili- Ravi buffalo bulls. Materials, Methods & Results: Adult Nili-Ravi buffalo bulls (n = 07) being reared for breeding at Semen Production Unit (SPU), Qadirabad, Sahiwal, Pakistan were used in the present study. Orchidometric attributes included scrotal circumference, testicular length, testicular width and paired testicular volume (PTV), whereas fresh seminal parameters included the assessment of ejaculatory volume, color, pH, mass motility and individual sperm motility, and sperm. The sperm dimensional characteristics included measurements of head length (HL), head breadth (HB), head shape (HS), midpiece length (MPL), tail length (TL) and total sperm length (TSL). Results revealed a significantly positive correlation (P ≤ 0.01) between body weight and all the studied orchidometric attributes. Similarly, correlation coefficients between all the studied sperm dimensional characteristics were also statistically significant (P ≤ 0.01 ). Semen color showed significantly positive correlation with sperm HL, HB, TL and TSL, being negative with HS and MPL. Semen pH showed significantly positive correlation with sperm HS and MPL and significantly negative correlation with other sperm dimensional characteristics. The individual sperm motility had significantly positive correlation with HL, TL and TSL being negatively correlated with MPL. The sperm count showed significantly positive correlation with HL, HB, TL and TSL. Various studies on males of livestock have reported a positive correlation between body weight and various testicular attributes especially SC and PTV. Similarly, semen parameters, both for fresh and post thaw, have also been shown to have interrelationships among each other. The present study has added sperm dimensional characteristics in the study. The perplexing diversity of sperm structure has always been an interest of research world-wide which has resulted in reports of its structure associated with its adaptive function i.e. appropriate fertility. The novelty of this study is that the work has been conducted on Nili-Ravi buffalo bulls, for which the results of this study endorse that body weight, orchidometric, seminal and sperm dimensional characteristics show positive correlation with each other and may be utilized for selection of breeding buffalo bulls as they are readily measurable and reliable indicators of their reproductive status. We recommend the incorporation of sperm morphological attributes in the Breeding Evaluation protocols of the SPUs of Pakistan for selection of reproductively sound breeding bulls.

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