Effects of Various Non-genetic Factors on Fertility Traits in Murrah Bulls in an Organized Herd

Background: In a herd going through improvement by selective breeding, bulls contribute more than half of the genetic gain due to higher selection intensity and wider coverage through AI. On the other side, meritorious sires might have a lower fertility due to various reasons which would render them less fit in their contribution to genetic improvement. Thus dairy buffalo breeders must find a delicate balance between production and reproduction superiority for selection of sires, for which an accurate assessment of genetic and non-genetic component of conception is essential. Methods: Present study was conducted on thirty five years data comprising of 5349 AI records on 1302 Murrah buffaloes using 86 bulls maintained and semen analysis of cryopreserved semen samples of 130 Murrah maintained at ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute Karnal were analyzed to study bull conception rate and sperm quality traits. Data were classified into four periods; four seasons of AI viz., Summer (April-June), rainy (July-September), autumn (October-November), winter (December-March); five parity (first, second, third, fourth, fifth and above) and five female AI number (1,2,3,4 and ³ 5 AI) to study the conception rate. Age at freezing (Years), period of freezing and season of freezing were analysed to observe their effects on semen quality traits. Mixed model analysis (SAS 9.3) and the analysis of variance were used to see the effects of various factors on conception rate as well as on semen quality parameters. Result: The analysis of variance revealed that period of AI and season of AI had significant (P less than 0.05) effect on conception rate while parity and female AI number were not found to affect the conception rate of bulls. For seminal parameters, acrosome integrity and HOST were significantly affected by age at freezing. Season affected all the semen quality traits while the effect of period of freezing was found to be non-significant for all the traits. Over all autumn season was found to be most suitable with respect to better seminal parameters. Considering season of AI, rainy season (July-September) had the lowest conception rate. The overall conception rate (%) in the study was 38.43±0.99; where Sires showed a wide variation for conception rate ranging from 20.00% to 60.46%. Concluding with the fact that there exists variation among bull fertility that can be utilized for not only herd conception rates but also be used as a criteria for bull selection and evaluation.