Relationship between thirty post-thaw spermatozoal characteristics and the field fertility of 11 high-use Australian dairy AI sires》.pdf

Animal Reproduction Science 81 (2004) 47–61 Relationship between thirty post-thaw spermatozoal characteristics and the field fertility of 11 high-use Australian dairy AI sires N.J. Phillips a,∗, M.R. Mcgowan a,b , S.D. Johnston c , D.G. Mayer d a School of Veterinary Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld. 4072, Australia b Royal Veterinary College, Hertfordshire, UK c School of Animal Studies, The University of Queensland, Australia d Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Queensland, Australia Received 3 March 2003; received in revised form 8 September 2003; accepted 3 October 2003 Abstract This study determined the relationship between two measures of field fertility of 11 high-use Australian artificial insemination (AI) dairy bulls and thirty standard laboratory assessments of spermatozoal post-thaw viability. The two measures of field fertility used, conception rates (cCR) and non-return rates (cNRR), were both corrected for all major non-bull variables. Sperm viability assessments were conducted on semen collected within the same season as that used to derive the field fertility estimates. These assessments measured sperm concentration, motility, morphology and membrane integrity at thawing, after 2 h incubation and after the swim-up sperm selection procedure. Derivations of these measures and in vitro embryo fertilizing and developmental capacity were also determined. The Genstat Statistical Package [Genstat 5 Release 4.2 Reference Manual, VSN International, Oxford, 2000] was used to conduct an analysis of variance on the viability parameters across semen straws and bulls, and to calculate the strength of correlation between each semen parameter, cNRR and cCR in a correlation matrix. Step forward multiple regression identified the comb