Research Article

The season effect on sexual behavior and sperm quality of East-Balkan boars

Yordan Marchev, Bogdan Szostak

1. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 12(2), 2013, 31‒38

Abstract. The aim of this study was to determine the season effect on sexual behavior and sperm quality of East-Balkan boars and changes in different periods of the year (April, August and October). During a 7-month study period, 120 ejaculates were collected from 8 mature boars. In each ejaculate the volume of liquid fraction, percentage of spermatozoa motility, spermatozoa concentration and the percentage of spermatozoa aglutinaton were determined. Before each collection the boars sexual behavior, involving courting time and time for ejaculation was estimated. A tendency for more strongly expressed libido and more continued ejaculation into the autumn vs. the summer was observed. The semen of East-Balkan boars do not differ from those of commercial boars, but season have a significant effect on the sperm quality. The ejaculates of the highest volume (228 ml) are produced in the autumn in comparison in the summer (193 ml). The seasonal influence is more strongly exspressed on the spermatozoa concentration where the difference of 33 mln/ml between two seasons is significance (P ≤ 0.05), and especially in spermatozoa agglutination (P ≤ 0.01), where the difference between the summer (27.2%) and the autumn (10.7%) is more than 2.5 times.

Keywords: boars, East-Balkan swine, season, sexual behavior, sperm quality