Digital infrared thermography as a tool to assess the effect of season, age and housing on seminal traits in Murrah bulls Ahirwar Maneesh Kumar*, Kataktalware M.A.1, Prasad Kotresh, Reen Jagish Kour, Barman Deepandita, Pal Ravi Prakash, Deginal R.S., Kumar N. Anand, Gupta Deepanshu Animal Physiology Division, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132 001, Haryana, India 1Livestock Production Management Section, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India *Corresponding author's e-mail: maneesh2311@gmail.com
Online published on 16 November, 2019. Abstract The main objective of the current experiment was to assess the seasonal variation on seminal attributes in 109 Murrah buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) bulls using infrared thermography, maintained at commercial semen production stations with ideal nutrition and management conditions in Karnatka (south India). Data were collected on 6 ejaculates in three different seasons through a year with different age groups of bulls. Infrared thermograms and data were collected using an infrared FLIR i5 camera and analyzed by Quick report 1.2 SP2 softwere to determine the temperature gradient (TG, difference between the PPT and DPT) scrotal surface and Ocular temperature. Immediately after semen collection by AV method. Semen evaluation were performed twice per season throughout the year. The ejaculates were subjected to general linear model (GLM) analysis to determine the effect of various non-genetic factors viz., season (summer, rainy and winter), age (<4 and >4 year), housing (group and individual housing) on semen quality attributes of Murrah bull. The overall least square mean volume (VOL), sperm concentration (SCON×10v/ml), initial motility (IM), percent live spermatozoa (LIVE), acrosome integrity (AI), plasma membrane integrity (PMI), head abnormalities (HAN), midpiece abnormalities (MPAN), tail abnormalities (TAN) in fresh semen whereas post-thaw motility (PTM), acrosome integrity (AIPT) and plasma membrane integrity in post-thawed semen (PMIPT) were 3.88±0.07 mL, 1041±14.64 million/mL, 64.62±0.50%, 76.42±0.51%, 66.56±0.48%, 2.90±0.05%, 3.35±0.05%, 5.88±0.10%, 68.39±0.47%, 41.48±0.55% and 61.66±0.47%, respectively. The statistical analysis of variance revealed significant effect (P<0.05) ofseason on semen quality attributes viz., VOL, SCON, IM, PTM, LIVE, HAN, MPAN, TAN, AI, AIPT, PMI and PMIPT. Age had significant effect on VOL, IM, LIVE, HAN, MPAN and house on SCON, PTM, AIPT and PMIPT. Thus, it may be concluded that the summer season adversely affected the various bio-physical characteristics of semen in Murrah buffalo bulls. Rainy season was the most favourable season for good quality semen production and the winter season might be considered as the intermediate between the two extremes. Top Keywords Age, Housing, Infra red thermography, Murrah bulls, Season, Semen quality. Top |