Testicular and Epididymal Sperm Reserves of Brazilian Hairy Rams

Abstract

Testicular and epididymal sperm reserves were estimated by the haemocytometric method in six adult Brazilian hairy rams, with normal spermatogenesis and kept at sexual rest. Mean values for testicular sperm reserve were 1 1 1.4 k 44.6 x lo6 sperm cells/gram of testis parenchyma and 11.2 k 6.6 X lo9 sperm cells/testis. Epididymal sperm reserve amounted 2 7 . 7 1 16.6 x lo9 spermatozoa/organ, distributed as follows: 13.4% in the head, 6.4 YO in the body and 80.2 % in the tail, Sperm reserves were highly correlated with testis weight, epididymal weight and scrotal circumference, but not with body weight.

Testicular and epididymal sperm reserve evaluations in three Jordanian goat breeds

“…In domestic animals, testes size and sperm production are highly correlated which implies that the larger the testes, the greater the sperm production. In the current study, the BWt had no correlation with TS, ETS, TWt, TW and TL suggesting that BWt might not be a good estimator of sperm output in the bucks, which agrees with Queiroz and Cardoso (1987), who reported that sperm reserves of Brazilian hairy ram are not correlated with BWt. In contrast, BWt had a strong correlation with TWt in Afar breed indicating good association between BWt and TWt.…”