AGE AFFECTS THE QUALITY OF SPERM’S

Sperm quality has been associated with age for many years. As we get older, the quality of spermatozoa tends to decrease.

This is of course an interesting thing for researchers at the Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Udayana University to conduct research on the effect of age on the quality of Landrace boar sperm’s.

Why Landrace pigs? Because the public knows white pigs, big pigs, which are actually a type of Landrace pig.

This Landrace pig has a high genetic advantage over other breeds. Landrace boars 2-4 years old are able to produce semen as much as 273.60 ml/ejaculate, while Landrace boars aged 6-8 years, semen volume reaches 107.66 ml/ejaculates, because the testes and genital glands in boars aged 2-4 years are in the high productivity phase so that the volume of semen produced in one ejaculate is higher than boars aged 6-8 years.

The factors that can affect the quality of boars sperm are feed, temperature, frequency of ejaculation, disease, libido and physical factors, as well as the presence or absence of heat sows.

The level of feeding and low quality of feed, can inhibit boars growth, decrease the number of sperm per ejaculate and decrease libido.

Ambient temperatures that are too cold or too hot can inhibit the production of spermatozoa in the testes.

Boars that are too often and continuously assigned to conception or sperm ejaculate can reduce the quality of sperm.

Boars with low libido tend to develop a resistance to conception. The reduced libido affects the semen volume and the concentration of motile spermatozoa per ejaculate.

Therefore, it is necessary to replace a boar or replacement stock in a pig breeding business so that production continues to run and is increasing.

The results of this study have been published in the Veterinary Journal, Vol. 20 No.3 September 2019.

https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/jvet/article/view/50524