CORRELAÇÃO ENTRE AS CARACTERÍSTICAS DO MOVIMENTO ESPERMÁTICO DE SÊMEN DE CACHAÇOS E DESEMPENHO REPRODUTIVO DE FÊMEAS SUÍNAS

Abstract

The swine livestock had a great development, and every year there are new technologies in order to improve production indices making the activity more efficient. Systems of computerized assessment of semen (CASA) have been shown to be a useful tool in the evaluation of sperm kinetics, showing great potential for predicting male fertility. The aim of this experiment is to determine the correlation between the characteristics of sperm movement evaluated by a computerized system (CASA) for 72 hours of cooling, with the birth rate and total number of piglets born from sows inseminated with the evaluated semen samples. A total of 7 males were used, being 19.6 ejaculated per male and for the fertility test, 464 females from second to sixth delivery were used. The following parameters were evaluated for sperm movement immediately after the dilution and after 24, 48 and 72 hours of cooling: total motility (% MT), progressive motility (% MP-), curvilinear velocity (VCL-mM / s) Speed progressive linear (VSLmM / s), average path velocity (VAP-mM / s), amplitude of lateral head displacement (ALH-mM), beat cross frequency (BCF, Hz), straightness (Str-% ) and linearity (Lin%). For data analysis, it was used the Pearson correlation coefficient and average characteristics among boars was compared by Tukey test at 5% probability. The parameters of total and progressive motility at time zero (T0) were highly significant and had a moderate correlation with both the high birth rate as the total number of piglets born. However, at times T24, T48 and T72 hours, correlation was not observed in any of the parameters evaluated with farrowing rate and total number of piglets born. The boar that showed the lowest total and progressive motility in T0 had lower farrowing rate and total number of piglets born. We conclude that computerized semen analysis after dilution is effective for predicting the fertility of boars.