Influence of Dietary Protein during the Pre-Breeder Period on Subsequent Reproductive Performance of Large White Turkeys

Abstract

Large White turkey breeders of a commercial variety were used to determine the effects of pre-breeder dietary protein, frequency of insemination, and semen volume on subsequent reproductive performance. Treatments included female dietary protein levels of 10, 12, 14, and 17% fed from 12 to 32 weeks of age and 10, 12, an 14% protein from 20 to 32 weeks of age; male dietary protein levels of 12 and 17% fed from 12 to 56 weeks of age; and artificial insemination (AI) treatments of a) .025 ml of semen at weekly intervals, b) .025 ml of semen at biweekly intervals, and c) .05 ml of semen at biweekly intervals in a factorial arrangement of treatments. Male dietary treatment had no significant effect on fertility or hatchability of fertile eggs. Female pre-breeder protein levels also had no significant effect on fertility but resulted in lower hatchability of fertile eggs during the latter part of the production period when females were fed either the 10 or 12% protein pre-breeder diets. Weekly inseminations with .025 ml of semen resulted in the highest average level of fertility during the production year (90%), followed by biweekly insemination with .05 ml (87%) and .025 ml (85%) of semen, respectively. Hatchability of fertile eggs was significantly higher for hens receiving .05 ml of semen biweekly than for the other two AI treatments during the latter half of the production year only. However, weekly inseminations caused a significant decline (6.7 eggs/hen) in egg production when compared to hens inseminated at biweekly intervals. The average number of fertile eggs was greatest for females inseminated with .05 ml semen biweekly (54.3) compared to those inseminated with .025 ml of semen biweekly (53.0) or .025 ml of semen weekly (50.2).

Effect of Sperm Numbers per Insemination Following Early or Late Initial Inseminations in Turkeys

“…Furthermore, eggs from the 20 million sperm/AI group The hatch of fertile eggs for the 20, 50, and 100 million sperm/AI groups in Weeks 16 to 20 was 56.6, 72.6, and 67.0%, respectively, with the 20 million group being significantly lower than the other two. Although reduced hatchability has been reported previously for poor quality or stale spermatozoa, (Nalbandov and Card, 1943;Woodard et al, 1976;Meyer et al, 1980) closer inspection of the Weeks 16 to 20 data revealed EI-20 and LI-20 hatchability values of 65.7 and 47.6%, respectively. The similarity of EI-20 hatchability to that of the 50 and 100 million sperm/AI groups seems to indicate that the 18.1% reduction in hatchability observed in the LI-20 treatment when compared to its EI-20 counterpart may have been responsible for the overall reduction in hatchability of the LI treatments and the 20 million sperm/AI groups (Table 3).…”