SEMEN CHARACTERISTICS OF ILE-DE-FRANCE RAMS OF DIFFERENT AGE AND PHYSICAL CONDITION

A breeding soundness examination (BSE) involving animal physical exami nation, scrotal circumference (SC) and semen evaluation was undertaken on 80 Ile-de-France rams at a government breeding farm, 32 km south-w est of Casablanca (Morocco) from March to May 1988. A large percentage of rams (21.4%) was found to be unfit for breeding due to physical an d genital abnormalities; 11 and 5% had disorders of the feet and respi ratory system;upon genital palpation, 17.5, 13.8 and 7.5% of animals h ad orchitis, epididymitis and posthitis, respectively. The SC increase d with age from 28.8 +/- 3.2 cm at less than or equal to 2 yr to 35.4 +/- 3.5 cm at 4 yr or more (P<0.001). The quality of semen was signifi cantly (P<0.01) depressed by orchitis and epididymitis (P<0.01) but no t by ram age. Semen volume decreased from 1.1+/-0.6 mi in rams with no rmal genitalia to 0.5+/-0.4 and 0.25+/-0.2 mi in animals with orchitis and epididymitis, respectively. Similarly, sperm cell concentration d eclined from 2.5+/-1.2 to 1.1+/-0.7 and 1.6+/-1.2 billion per mi, whil e sperm motility dropped from 81.5+/-12.3% to 58.3+/-14.3 and 61.3+/-2 6.5%. The percentage of abnormal spermatozoa was also higher among ram s with orchitis (24.3+/-17.5%) and epididymitis (20.7+/-24.3%) than am ong rams with normal genitalia (6.4+/-6.2%). We concluded that older r ams need better health care to improve their semen production properti es that may be influencing fertility.