The effect of storage on spermatozoa in vitro and the composition of the extender on the proportion of offspring from heterospermic insemination in the chicken

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Abstract
Spermatozoa from a Columbian (C) and a Leghorn (L) cock were stored at 4.degree. C for 4 h before mixing in equal numbers for insemination. When hens were inseminated with 100 .times. 106, 200 .times. 106 or 300 .times. 106 spermatozoa, the proportion of chicks sired by Cocks C and L was not affected (P > 0.05) by total number of spermatozoa inseminated or the interval from insemination to oviposition (2-16 days). Cock C sired 61% of the chicks after the 4-h storage period. In a concurrent study, Cock C sired 34% of offspring when fresh semen was used, indicating that relative fertilizing ability of spermatozoa from different males does not change during storage in vivo but may during storage in vitro. Ringer''s solution (R) was compared to Locke''s solution (O) in its ability to maintain the fertilizing ability of spermatozoa from Cocks C and L were stored in R or O and then mixed in a 1:1 ratio in 4 CR + LR, CO + LO, CR + LO and CO + LR. When the same extenders were used for both cocks, i.e., CR + LR and CO + LO, differences between groups were not significant (P > 0.05) for number of eggs collected, percent of eggs fertilized and proportion of chicks sired by each cock. With combinations CR + LO and CO + LR, number of eggs collected, percent of eggs fertilized and number of chicks in the 2 groups were similar. The CR + LO combination resulted in 57% of the chicks being sired by Cock C, but the proportion of chicks sired by this cock rose significantly (P < 0.005) to 77% when CO + LR combination was used. This 20% increase was presumably due to advantage of storage in the O extender and indicates that appropriate heterospermic inseminations are more sensitive than homospermic insemination for evaluating treatments applied to semen.

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