Abstract
The aim was to compare some stress responses to electroejaculation (EE), and the quality of fresh semen, when ram semen is collected at dawn (06:00 h), noon (12:00 h), or evening (18:00 h). Twelve Corriedale rams were used, and semen was collected from four rams at each study time on three different days, with a Latin-square design. The time required for EE, the number of vocalizations emitted, heart rate, and rectal temperature were recorded, and fresh semen was evaluated. The time required for EE was shorter at evening than at dawn and noon (399.3 s, 480.6 s, and 460.2 s respectively; pooled SEM = 72.1; P = 0.03). The percentage of sperm with progressive motility was greater at noon than dawn (59.7% and 50.3%; pooled SEM = 5.8; P = 0.05). Curvilinear velocity was greater at dawn than evening (117.0 µm/s and 95.5 µm/s; pooled SEM = 7.1; P = 0.04), slow linear velocity was greater at evening than at dawn and noon (13.1 µm/s, 9.3 µm/s, and 8.5 µm/s respectively; pooled SEM = 1.7, P = 0.05), and the slow average path velocity was greater at evening than dawn and noon (16.2 µm/s, 11.7 µm/s, and 10.8 µm/s respectively; pooled SEM = 1.9, P = 0.05). In conclusion, the collection time modified the time required for electroejaculation and had only slight effects on the quality of fresh semen. Overall, the time of the day appears to have only slight effects on semen collection and quality.
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The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author at reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge Sofía Rodríguez for helping in the laboratory, Augusto Ryonosuke and Juliana Dantas for helping in the semen collection, and Milton Pintos, Nadia Carballo, and María Pedrozo for the handling of the rams. We acknowledge INIFAP (Mexico), for supporting JC Orihuela studies in Uruguay.
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We acknowledge and state “The research that gives rise to the results presented in this publication received funds from the Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación under the code POS_NAC_D_2020_1_164576”.
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J.C. Orihuela: study design, coordination and development of the experiment, analysis and data interpretation, and writing of the manuscript. L. Pinto-Santini, F. Beracochea, J. Giriboni, and M. Viera: development of the experiment, critical review with important contributions to the manuscript. P. Siveira: sample analysis and review of the manuscript. R. Ungerfeld: study design, development of the experiment, review of data analysis and interpretation, and review and writing of the manuscript.
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This study was performed as part of a PhD project. Approval was granted by the Comisión de Ética en el Uso de Animales (CEUA Ethical Committee) of the Facultad de Veterinaria of the Universidad de la República, Uruguay.
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Orihuela, J.C., Pinto-Santini, L., Beracochea, F. et al. Time of day modified the time required for semen collection with electroejaculation and slightly affected the quality of fresh semen in rams. Trop Anim Health Prod 55, 144 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03564-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03564-w