Competitive Fertilization in the Fowl

Assessment of relative fertility of males (cockerels and boars) by competitive mating

“…The number of eggs for each of the numbers of spermatozoa ranged from 200 to 224 (Table 3 (Table 3), a hierarchy of fertility of males could be established. These observations of a hierarchy are in agreement with those of other workers in the chicken (Allen & Champion, 1955), rabbit (Beatty, 1960; O'Reilly, Graves & Dziuk, 1972) and cattle (Beatty et al, 1969;Stewart, Spooner, Bennett, Beatty & Hancock, 1974). Although different methods were used in the present study for calculating a ranking of males, none changed the rank order.…”

Decreased sperm survivability in subfertile Delaware roosters as indicated by comparative and competitive fertilization

“…Table 2 is not only typical among breeds but also among individuals within breeds (Allen & Champion, 1955;Martin & Dziuk, 1977 ( 1966), intramagnal insemination with spermatozoa of SCWL birds increased fertility (Fig. la).…”

Distribution of Spermatozoa in the Oviduct and Fertility in Domestic Birds

“…Eight replicated semen quality measure¬ ments were made over a period of 12 weeks, including estimates of motility (Allen & Champion, 1955), ejaculate volume, spermatozoan density (Carson, Lorenz & Asmundson, 1955), methylene-blue-reduction time (Beck & Salisbury, 1943), and the numbers of stained and unstained spermatozoa in a smear from a nigrosin-eosin suspension (the so-called 'live-dead' stain; Blom, 1950).…”

“…* Methylene-blue-reduction time. f The motility index described by Allen & Champion (1955) Since the observed semen characteristics were not unlike what might have resulted from exceptionally rapid spermatozoan deterioration, possibly because of an unknown substance in the seminal plasma (e.g. a toxin or an antibody), an initial experiment was designed to test this possibility and at the same time verify the lack of fertilizing ability of semen from these cocks.…”