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Efficiency of Artificial Vagina Method in Semen Collection from Osaka Drakes

Osaka Prefectural Agriculture and Forestry Research Center, Osaka, Japan; Phone: +81/729/58/65 51; FAX: +81/729/56/96 91

T. Inaba and T. Sawada

Department of Animal Reproduction, College of Agriculture, Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka, Japan

Correspondence: K. Kasai, E-mail:RXI06557{at}nifty.ne.jp

The Osaka duck (a small-sized strain of the Pekin) has recently been attracting attention because of its low fat meat. However, the reproductive efficiency of domestic ducks is not very high, and, therefore, the application of artificial insemination (AI) is desirable for a systematic breeding program. For successful application of AI, an easy and reliable semen collection method is required. In this study, we attempted to improve the semen yield from the Osaka drakes by using the artificial vagina (AV) method instead of the conventional manual massage (MM) method that is not always successful with ducks. There was a 4.0-fold increase in the number of spermatozoa per ejaculate for semen collected by the AV method as compared with the MM method. Furthermore, motility, viability, and the fertilizing capacity of spermatozoa collected by the AV method were greater than those of spermatozoa collected by theMMmethod. These results indicate that the use of an AV method would improve to an existing AI program.

Key Words: Artificial vagina • duck • semen collection