Research Article

Selected meat and fattening features and sperm quality in young purebred and hybrid boars

Jan Udała, Ewa Kwita, Dariusz Gączarzewicz, Jarosław Kuba, Tomasz Stankiewicz, Barbara Błaszczyk, Bogumiła Pilarczyk, Agnieszka Tomza-Marciniak, Małgorzata Bąkowska

West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland

1. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 14(2), 2015, 165‒174

Abstract. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the selected semen quality features and daily gains and meatiness of boars at the beginning of their reproductive use in one of the animal local artificial insemination centre in Pomerania region, Poland. The study was performed on 158 PLW, PL and Duroc x Pietrain hybrid boars in the age of 9 to 14 months. The following features were analysed: ejaculate volume (cm³), sperm concentration (×10⁶ ⋅ cm^–3), percentage of progressive motility sperm, the total number of sperm in the ejaculate, mean standardised daily gain, intravital meatiness and selection index. The study has shown that the semen from hybrids, in comparison to the purebreds, was characterized by the higher concentration and motility of sperm but the mean volume of ejaculate was lower which resulted in the general lower amount of sperm in ejaculates. The hybrids had also the highest daily gains. With the similar meatiness in all the three groups, the highest selection index was noted for the PLW boars. The positive relationships were found between the ejaculate volume, total number of spermatozoa in the ejaculate and daily gains, meatiness and selection index. The negative relationships were found for these parameters compared to sperm concentration. The results indicate that it is possible to obtain the good quality boar semen simultaneously with maintaining the correct rate of body growth and meatiness.

Keywords: boar, semen, daily gain, meatiness