Mass sperm motility is associated with fertility in sheep

Ingrid David (1) , Philippa Kohnke (2) , Gilles Lagriffoul (3, 4) , Olivier Praud (5) , Franck Plouarboué (5) , Pierre Degond (6) , Xavier Druart (2)

1 GenPhySE - Génétique Physiologie et Systèmes d'Elevage
2 PRC - Physiologie de la reproduction et des comportements [Nouzilly]
3 IDELE - Institut de l'élevage
4 ANIO - Association Nationale de l'Insémination Ovine
5 IMFT - Institut de mécanique des fluides de Toulouse
6 Department of Mathematics [Imperial College London]

The study was to focus on the relationship between wave motion (mass sperm motility, measured by a mass sperm motility score, manually assessed by artificial insemination (AI) center operators) and fertility in male sheep. A dataset of 711,562 artificial inseminations performed in seven breeds by five French AI centers during the 2001–2005 time period was used for the analysis. Factors influencing the outcome of the insemination, which is a binary response observed at lambing of either success (1) or failure (0), were studied using a joint model within each breed and AI center (eight separate analyses). The joint model is a multivariate model where all information related to the female, the male and the insemination process were included to improve the estimation of the factor effects. Results were consistent for all analyses. The male factors affecting AI results were the age of the ram and the mass motility. After correction for the other factors of variation, the lambing rate increased quasi linearly from three to more than ten points with the mass sperm motility score depending on the breed and the AI center. The consistency of the relationship for all breeds indicated that mass sperm motility is predictive of the fertility resulting when sperm are used from a specific ejaculate. Nonetheless, predictability could be improved if an objective measurement of mass sperm motility were available as a substitute for the subjective scoring currently in use in AI centers.

Mots clés: mass motility; fertility; sheep

Domaines: Autre [q-bio.OT]

Ingrid David, Philippa Kohnke, Gilles Lagriffoul, Olivier Praud, Franck Plouarboué, et al.. Mass sperm motility is associated with fertility in sheep. Animal Reproduction Science, 2015, 161, pp.75-81. ⟨10.1016/j.anireprosci.2015.08.006⟩. ⟨hal-01228837⟩