EFFECT OF SEASON ON SEMEN QUALITY PARAMETERS IN MURRAH BUFFALO BULLS

The present study was undertaken to know the seasonal influence on various seminal attributes in Murrah buffalo bulls. Data on 156 ejaculates of eight Murrah buffalo bulls (nearly 30 to 58 months) maintained under identical nutrition and management conditions were selected randomly from Artificial Breeding Complex, NDRI, Karnal, India, from May, 2006 to April, 2007. The information on 156 ejaculates was subjected to least square analysis to quantify the effect of non genetic factor (summer, rainy and winter) on various semen quality parameters. The overall least square mean values of the 8 Murrah buffalo bulls for ejaculate volume (ml), mass activity, Initial motility (%), Sperm concentration (10(6)/ml), Total sperm output (10(6)), Non-eosinophilic count (%), HOST (%), Acrosome integrity (%), Head abnormality (%), Mid-piece abnormality (%), Tail abnormality (%), Total abnormality (%), pH and Osmolality (mOsmol/Kg) were 2.66 +/- 0.10; 2.54 +/- 0.70; 60.64 +/- 0.02; 1016.68 +/- 21.25; 2748.67 +/- 122.86; 67.20 +/- 0.03; 40.88 +/- 0.03; 52.72 +/- 0.01; 70.10 +/- 0.02; 2.30 +/- 0.001; 1.62 +/- 0.01; 5.50 +/- 0.002; 9.47 +/- 0.002; 6.78 +/- 0.20 and 277.78 +/- 2.40, respectively. Seasonal variations had no significant effect on ejaculate volume (2.69, 2.71 and 2.56), mass activity (2.56, 2.40 and 2.67) and total sperm output (2510.08, 2812.44 and 2923.49) in Murrah buffalo bulls, but it had a significant (P<0.05) effect on pH (6.85, 6.77 and 6.71) of semen. The present data clearly indicated that there was highly significant (P<0.01) effect of season on seminal attributes such as initial motility (56.18, 59.64 and 65.95), sperm concentration (870.62, 1028.20 and 1151.20), non-eosinophilic count (61.91, 65.65 and 73.74), HOST reacted sperm percent (47.05, 48.32 and 62.67), acrosome integrity (65.04, 68.64 and 76.28), sperm abnormalities (HEAD: 2.79, 2.68 and 1.53; MP: 2.15, 1.58 and 1.19; TAIL: 7.11, 5.61 and 4.01 and TOTAL: 12.11, 9.90 and 6.76) and osmolality (288.05, 279.81 and 265.48) of semen. During hot dry (summer) season, the highest values of VOL, sperm abnormalities, pH and OSMOL and lowest MA, IM, SPC, SPCE, LIVE, HOST and AI were observed. During hot-humid (rainy) season, intermediate values of all the seminal attributes were observed. During cold (winter) season highest magnitude of MA, IM, SPC, SPCE, LIVE, HOST and AI and lowest value of VOL, sperm abnormalities, pH and OSMOL were observed. Thus, it may be concluded that the hot-dry season adversely affect the various biophysical characteristics of semen in Murrah buffalo bulls. Winter was the most favourable season for good quality semen production and the rainy season might be considered as the intermediate between the two extremes.