Effect of Added Spermiophages in Pooled Turkey Semen on Fertility, Embryonic Mortality, and Hatchability

The semen of turkeys with numerous spermiophages was used for isolating spermiophages by density gradient centrifugation. Isolated spermiophages were suspended in Beltsville Poultry Semen Extender (BPSE) and added to semen with low spermiophage numbers to give approximate spermiophage concentrations of: 2 x 10(5)/mL (medium) and 10(6) (high). Semen with no added spermiophages was the control. Samples were diluted to 1:1 with BPSE, and for each spermiophage level (treatment), semen aliquots were either immediately inseminated or stored 6 h at 4 C with agitation (150 rpm) before insemination. Hens were inseminated weekly, and fertility, embryonic mortality, and hatchability of eggs were determined for a 10-wk period. The experiment was performed twice. In Trial 1, there were no differences in fertility between treatments except that fertility for control stored semen was lower (P < or = 0.05) than that for fresh semen (89.27 vs 95.97, respectively; SEM = 2.2). Neither hatchability nor embryonic mortality was affected by spermiophage level in Trial 1. Spermiophages did not affect fertility in Trial 2; however, hatchability for unstored treatments with added spermiophages was significantly lower than for the control. For stored semen, hatchability was significantly (P < or = 0.05) greater for treatments with added spermiophages than for the control. Differences in embryonic mortality in Trial 2 did not relate to adding spermiophages to the semen. No clearly defined detrimental effect of seminal spermiophages was shown in the present experiments.