Morfological sperm evaluation in boars from an artificial insemination center

Abstract

: Changes in sperm morphology have an impact on the fertility of swine reproducers, with losses in the productive indexes, constituting one of the causes of discarding males. In this context, the objective was to identify more frequent abnormalities in semen samples from boars that failed, at an insemination center, in addition to exploring considerations about the disposal of breeders based on the morphological examination. To achieve this goal, semen was collected from 95 pigs and sperm morphology was evaluated. Among the 95 breeders that had their semen evaluated in the first collection, 78% had their semen approved and 22% failed. During the first semen collection, most of the sperm abnormalities (31.52 % ± 8.85) identified were distal (13.76 % ± 7.48) and proximal (11.95 % ± 6.72) cytoplasmic gout. The 21 breeders with failed samples in the first collection, were again evaluated and 19% failed (4 boars), the average recurrent abnormalities (33.75 % ± 2.38) were distal (14.25 % ± 1.92) and proximal (12.5 % ± 4.39) cytoplasmic gout. Through this study it was possible to observe that the morphological evaluation of sperm in swine farms is an extremely necessary tool to identify animals for selection and reproductive disposal. The repetition of the morphological examination in males that had their semen failed should be performed in order to avoid false conclusions.