Identifying potentially subfertile toms via a sperm-binding assay

Area of Science:

• Animal Science
• Reproductive Biology
• Poultry Science

Background:

• Sperm quality is crucial for successful avian reproduction.
• Assessing turkey sperm quality is essential for optimizing breeding programs.
• Existing methods may not fully capture functional sperm characteristics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a commercial sperm-egg binding assay for its utility in detecting differences in turkey sperm quality.
• To determine if sperm-egg binding capacity correlates with fertility and hatchability in turkeys.

Main Methods:

• Commercial sperm-egg binding assay using perivitelline membrane extract.
• Evaluation of turkey semen samples from individual toms with motility scores of 2 or more.
• Comparison of fertility and hatchability in hens inseminated with semen from toms categorized as having LOW or HIGH sperm binding.

Main Results:

• The sperm-egg binding assay detected significant variation in sperm quality among individual turkey males.
• Semen with LOW sperm-egg binding was associated with reduced fertility and hatchability in one experiment.
• A decline in hatchability was observed in hens inseminated with LOW binding semen after 40 weeks of age, while HIGH binding semen maintained high hatch rates (>80%).
• Approximately 7% more poults were obtained from hens inseminated with semen from HIGH binding toms.

Conclusions:

• The commercial sperm-egg binding assay is a valuable tool for assessing functional sperm quality in turkeys.
• Sperm-egg binding capacity is a reliable indicator of fertility and hatchability, impacting overall poult production.
• This assay can aid in selecting superior turkey males for breeding programs.