Semen evaluation in jungle fowl, domestic chicken and ayam serama.

This research was conducted to investigate variation in semen quality of three chicken breeds. Nine cocks comprising 3 cockerels each of jungle fowl, domestic chicken, and ayam serama were used in this project. Semen was collected once a week by abdominal massage method. The semen was evaluated for volume, colour, wave pattern, general and individual motility, concentration, live and, abnormal percentage and sperm size. No significant differences were observed in volume of semen among all three breeds (P>0.05). Creamy and milky colour of semen were observed for jungle fowl and domestic chicken, whereas for ayam serama the color was watery. There were significant differences (P< 0.05) between semen concentration in jungle fowl (94.44 x 109 ± 905.3 sperms/mL) and ayam serama (1.83 x 109 ± 743 sperms/mL). For general motility, no significant (P >0.05) differences were observed among these three breeds. The types of individual motility observed and analyzed were forward, rotating, vibrating, and backward. Jungle fowl had highest forward motility and lowest for rotating motility. There were no significant (P >0.05) differences in term of sperm size between jungle fowl and the other two breeds. All three breeds had total live spermatozoa of more than 90%. Six sperm defects were observed: macrocephalic, mid piece knotting, bend head, plasma droplet, spermatid and bend tail. It was concluded that there were significant (P >0.05) differences between the three cock breeds in semen color, concentration, individual sperm motility particularly forward and rotating motility, size of sperm and total abnormalities. Jungle fowl appeared to have higher quality semen compared to domestic chicken and ayam serama. Although ayam serama appeared to have lower semen quality than domestic chicken and jungle fowl, it still had sufficient quality for use in artificial insemination

Reproductive performance of Kedah-Kelantan cattle at Pusat Ternakan Haiwan Pantai Timur, Malaysia.

Data between 1996 and 2009 at Pusat Ternakan Haiwan Pantai Timur, Malaysia were used to analyse the age at first calving, age at conception, calving interval and mean birth weight of Kedah-Kelantan (KK) cattle. Monthly rainfall from 2006 to 2008 were also analysed to determine the correlation between rainfall and calving rate and calf mortality rate. The results indicated that the mean age at first calving was 1146 ± 148 days, the mean age at conception was 858 ± 148 days, the mean for first, second, and third calving interval were 403 ± 137, 389 ± 116, and 376 ± 90 days, respectively. The result also showed that the calving interval subsequently decreased with increasing parity. No significant differences were found between the three calving intervals (P > 0.05). The mean birth weight was significantly different between female (12.93 kg) and male (13.97 kg) calves (P < 0.05). There was a weak correlation between the calving rate and monthly rainfall pattern (r = 0.26) and between mortality of calves below 3 months of age with rainfall pattern (r = 0.17). The results also showed that there was low negative correlation between mortality rate of calves below 6 months of age (r = -0.28) and total mortality (r = -0.04) with rainfall. In conclusion, Kedah-Kelantan cattle showed very good reproductive performance and are suitable for commercial beef production in Malaysia

Breeding soundness examination in Kedah-Kelantan bulls.

Breeding soundness examination (BSE) is a tool to identify and select good and potential breeder bulls. The bull is an important aspect in natural breeding in which the bull supplies semen to fertilize the cow. A study was carried out at Pusat Ternakan Haiwan Pantai Timur Kelantan using BSE as a tool to evaluate, identify and prove the claim that the Kedah-Kelantan (KK) bulls at the farm are good in their reproductive performance. The parameters evaluated in BSE included physical examination parameters of feet, legs, eyes, body score, and scrotal circumference and also internal and external examination parameters of reproductive organ. Parameters for semen evaluation which included general motility, live percentage, volume, sperm morphology and concentration, were also determined. The bulls were then classified either as satisfactory potential breeders, unsatisfactory potential breeders or differed bulls, according to the standard parameters of BSE. Ten KK bulls were selected from an active breeding herd. All of the bulls passed the minimum standards of BSE which include the bull must be free from disease and abnormality of reproductive organ, has achieved the minimal scrotal circumference size of 22.5 cm at two years of age and at least has 30% of general motility and 70% of normal sperm morphology. From the results, it is concluded that all of the bulls can be classified as satisfactory potential breeders

Evaluation of semen collected by electroejaculation from captive lesser Malay chevrotain (tragulus javanicus).

Thirteen sexually mature captive male lesser Malay chevrotains (Tragulus javanicus) were each anesthetized twice with tiletamine-zolazepam for electroejaculation. Viable spermatozoa were collected from all animals. The semen was creamy, milky, pale yellowish, or watery. The mean values for ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, and percentages of sperm motility, normality and viability were 23.7 ± 2.5 μ l, 366.9 ± 127.8 × 10 spermatozoa/ml, 40.0% ± 3.1%, 71.4% ± 1.6%, and 59.6% ± 2.1%, respectively. Semen pH was 7–8. No adverse effects of electroejaculation were noted. These are the first reported values for semen of lesser Malay chevrotain. Electroejaculation should be usable for routine semen collection in this species

Influences of conditional, environmental and social values, risk and cost on consumers’ willingness to pay for water tariff

Water is treated as a public or social good in Malaysia. Malaysians believe that providing good quality water for households’ use is the government’s responsibility. The government has been subsidizing the cost of water for its population since pre-Independence Day. However, the increased cost of providing good quality water to the public meant that the current water tariff charged needs to be re-evaluated. This study investigates the role played by various factors, namely, perceived conditional value, perceived environmental value, social norm, perceived risk and perceived cost on Malaysian consumers’ willingness to pay for water provided to households. The target of the study was paid water consumers in Malaysia. The results of online survey participated by 867 willing paid water consumers analysed by Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) show that only perceived conditional value, perceived environmental values, and perceived risk were significantly related to Malaysian consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for proposed higher water tariff while social norm and perceived cost show insignificant influences on consumers’ WTP. Overall, conditional value shows the strongest effect towards consumers’ WTP. The study’s findings have provided insights for the government and water providers on how Malaysian household water consumers behave on the issue of implementing higher water tariff. It is now known that Malaysian consumers’ perceived values, in particular, conditional value as well as risks they perceived to be existent are significant in influencing their WTP behaviour on proposed higher water tariff. These findings suggest that any future plan to increase current water tariff may not be accepted by the public unless their perceived values and risk on the issue are considered and inserted in any of the water education campaigns by the government and water providers

The Roles of Antioxidants and Fatty Acids in Sperm Cryopreservation

Despite research developments in the area of sperm storage, it has become inevitable to realize a marked reduction in the quality of fresh semen following cryopreservation. As a result, research has continued and will also continue in the future looking forward for a much better and improved methods of sperm cryopreservation along with better understanding of the physical and biochemical challenges that the sperm has to face to survive during freezing. Among the various attempts made to improve the cryopreservation process and subsequently result in superior quality of sperm after thawing include manipulating the composition of semen extenders by addition of exogenous products including antioxidants and fatty acids. While fatty acids are added to strengthening plasma membrane stability, Antioxidants are incorporated to compensate the reduction in the endogenous antioxidants level of seminal plasma due to dilution as well as to combat with the excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) production during freezing. In this chapter, the roles of antioxidants and fatty acids in mammalian sperm cryopreservation, both from endogenous and exogenous perspectives, will be discussed with reference to the latest research findings

Determination of follicular wave development in oestrus synchronised beef cows

A study was conducted to determine the follicular wave development in terms of dominant follicles size, number of follicular waves and follicles existing at pre- and post-ovulation stage, and length of oestrous cycle in oestrus synchronised beef cows. Thirty cows consisting of 3 breedtypes: KK (n=10), Brakmas (n=10), and Charoke (n=10), were inserted with controlled internal drug releasing (CIDR) device containing 1.38 g progesterone for 7 days and given intramuscular injection of a synthetic prostaglandin analogue of 25 mg prostaglandin two days prior to CIDR withdrawal. It was shown of BK, CK and KK cows had 45%, 35% and 20% 3-follicular waves pattern, respectively. BK cows had higher number of cows having 3-follicular waves (P0.05) observed in terms of mean diameter of follicle at emergence stage in the three breedtypes. The mean diameter of ovulatory follicular development was significantly larger (P0.05). Similarly, there was also no significant difference (P>0.05) of the dominant follicle diameter was observed in the second and third (ovulatory follicle) follicular waves patterns among the three breeds of cows studied. The mean diameter of ovulatory follicle in KK was 10.2±0.1 mm, BK 11.6±0.10 mm and CK 10.7±0.1 mm, in KK, BK and KK cows, respectively. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) found among the three breeds of cows studied for mean length of oestrous cycle. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicated there was no difference on the follicular wave development in terms of dominant follicles size in pre-ovulation, first, second and third follicular wave development; follicles existing at post-ovulation stage, and length of oestrous cycle in KK, BK and CK cows. However, in terms of the number of follicular waves, BK and CK cows had a higher proportion of 3- and 2-follicular waves development than KK cows. and the number of follicles existing at pre-ovulation stage in KK and BK cows were predominantly higher CK cows

Stress levels in bulls during and after electroejaculation

The Animal Welfare Society has expressed its concern on the use of electroejaculator as a semen collection device. The society believes that electroejaculation will incur pain to the animal and thus causing stress. Thus, this will compromise the quality of semen collected from the animal. A study was conducted to observe it bulls were stressed when the electroejaculation technique was applied for semen collection. A serum blood sample was collected before, immediately after and after semen collection using the EE technique. Changes in serum cortisol concentration in serial blood samples were used to quantify stress response in the bulbs. Eight bulls aged from 3 to 8 years and weighing between 320 and 830 kg were randomly assigned to one of the two treatments. The first treatment group consisted of bulls that were inserted with a probe and given electrical stimuli (ES) while the second treatment group comprised of bulls that were inserted with a rectal probe but without electrical stimulus (WES). Blood samples were collected by venipuncture at rest (first before the rectal probe was inserted), immediately after ejaculation, 10 and 15 min postejaculation. There was no significant difference (p ≥ 0.05) between the group with electrical stimulus and the group without electrical stimulus. However, there are significant differences between bulls in each group. The use of probe with electrical stimuli did not significantly increase serum cortisol concentration

Evaluation of the ejaculate quality of the red jungle fowl, domestic chicken, and bantam chicken in Malaysia

The objective of this study was to investigate the semen quality of 3 chicken breeds: the red jungle fowl, domestic chicken, and bantam chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus). A total of 27 cocks, including 9 cocks each of red jungle fowl, domestic chicken, and bantam chicken, were used in this study. Semen was collected once a week by dorso-abdominal massage method. The semen was evaluated for volume, concentration, motility, live/dead ratio, and percentage abnormalities. There were no significant differences in the semen volume and general motility among the 3 breeds. However, the semen concentration was significantly different between the red jungle fowl (4.44 × 109 sperm/mL) and bantam chicken breeds (1.83 × 109). The percentage of forward motility in the red jungle fowl was significantly higher than that of the domestic chicken and bantam chicken, while the percentage of spermatozoa with rotating motility was significantly higher in the bantam chicken and domestic chicken. It was concluded that the semen concentration, individual motility, and total abnormalities were significantly different among bantam chicken, domestic chicken, and red jungle fowl and the semen volume and concentration was highest in the red jungle fowl