Hodge Marnie J, Rindfleish Sally J, de Las Heras-Saldana Sara, Stephen Cyril P, Pant Sameer D
School of Agriculture, Environment and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia.
Apiam Animal Health, Apiam Genetic Services, Dubbo, NSW 2830, Australia.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Oct 26;12(21):2946. doi: 10.3390/ani12212946.
Semen characteristics including volume, gross motility, spermatozoal concentration, and percent post-thaw motility are routinely assessed to determine the quality and quantity of an ejaculate prior to use in artificial breeding programs. Currently, artificial breeding programs in sheep place relatively little emphasis on ram-side factors, such as the fertilising potential of an ejaculate, which may contribute to variability in conception outcomes. Estimating genetic parameters for ejaculate quality and quantity traits could provide insights into whether selective breeding can be used to improve such ram-side traits, improving ovine reproductive performance and farm profitability. Therefore, in this study, a total of 11,470 ejaculate records, including data for ejaculate volume, gross motility, spermatozoal concentration, and percent post-thaw motility, collected over a 20-year period was used to estimate genetic parameters in sheep. Univariate and bivariate mixed model analysis was performed including a variety of fixed effects such as breed, age at collection, centre of collection, collection number, season of collection, and method of collection; and the permanent environmental effects associated with each ram, stud and year of collection, and the breeding value of rams included as random effects. The heritability for ejaculate volume, gross motility, concentration, and percent post-thaw motility was estimated to be 0.161, 0.170, 0.089, and 0.081. Repeatability estimates were moderate, ranging between 0.4126 and 0.5265. Overall, results indicate that semen traits are lowly heritable and moderately repeatable, indicating that these traits are significantly influenced by environmental variables.
在人工授精计划中使用精液之前,通常会评估精液特征,包括体积、总活力、精子浓度和冻融后活力百分比,以确定射精量和质量。目前,绵羊的人工授精计划相对较少关注公羊方面的因素,例如射精的受精潜力,这可能导致受孕结果的差异。估计射精质量和数量性状的遗传参数可以深入了解是否可以通过选择性育种来改善这些公羊方面的性状,从而提高绵羊的繁殖性能和农场盈利能力。因此,在本研究中,共使用了在20年期间收集的11470条射精记录,包括射精量、总活力、精子浓度和冻融后活力百分比的数据,来估计绵羊的遗传参数。进行了单变量和双变量混合模型分析,包括各种固定效应,如品种、采集时的年龄、采集中心、采集次数、采集季节和采集方法;以及与每只公羊、种畜和采集年份相关的永久环境效应,公羊的育种值作为随机效应。射精量、总活力、浓度和冻融后活力百分比的遗传力估计分别为0.161、0.170、0.089和0.081。重复性估计值适中,介于0.4126和0.5265之间。总体而言,结果表明精液性状的遗传力较低,重复性适中,表明这些性状受环境变量的显著影响。