Abstract

This study was aimed at investigating the use of seminal plasma protein concentration to predict fertility and hatchability in the domestic fowl. Forty cocks with acceptable sperm motility and morphology were used and the seminal plasma protein concentration determined by the Biuret method. The result revealed a negative significant correlation between the seminal plasma protein concentration with sperm motility (r = -0.5920, p<0.05), Y = -0.3144X²+2.1578X+74.324, R² = 0.3506 (p<0.05). A significant positive correlation with percentage dead spermatozoa r = 0.9743 (p<0.01), R² = 0.9493, p<0.01), percent abnormal spermatozoa, r = 0.8425, p<0.01), R² = 0.7098 (p<0.01), Y = 0.357X²+1.5364X+9.1886. Egg fertility and Hatchability were negative but significantly correlated with seminal plasma protein concentration r = -0.6302 (p<0.01) vs r = -0.8438 (p<0.01) and Y = 0.8977X²-5.8289X+81.628 vs Y = -0.2391X²+3.3871X+60.771, respectively. There was low correlation with the quantitative semen characteristics. Prediction of Y_max from Seminal plasma protein concentration (X) showed that the best semen quality, highest percent fertility and hatchability would be obtained when the concentration of seminal plasma protein is >3.00 g/100 mL but <6.00 g/100 mL. It was concluded that seminal plasma protein concentration could be used as a biomarker for prediction of fertility and hatchability in the domestic fowl.

Keywords:

Biomarker, domestic fowl, fertility, hatchability, seminal plasma protein,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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