Effect of breed on frequency of morphological defects in boar spermatozoa

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess an effect of breed on frequency of morphological changes in boar spermatozoa. A total of 1080 semen samples were used in this study. The samples were collected from January to December 2017 from 90 boars of the Duroc, Czech Large White and Czech Landrace breeds. Sperm cell abnormalities were evaluated microscopically from dyed smears of native semen on glass slides. Defects of spermatozoa were divided according to their impact on fertility of boars into categories of "major defects" (with a great negative effect on fertility) and "minor defects" (with a mild effect on fertility). The overall frequency of spermatozoa with morphological defects ranged from 11.62 % in Czech Landrace to 20.96 % in Duroc. Statistically significant differences were found in the frequencies of both major and minor defects among the breeds. The results of this study document that there are great inter-breed differences in the occurrence of morphologically defective spermatozoa that significantly affect fertility of boars.