Differential dietary energy effects on semen characteristics of indigenous turkey reared in ahumid tropical environment

A study was conducted to evaluate the semen characteristics of turkey toms fed varying levels of energy diets. Thirty (30), 28-weeks old turkey toms having an average live weight of 6.75 ± 1.27 kg were randomly assigned to three isonitrogenous (20% CP) dietary treatments having 2400 kca/kg (T₁: control), 2600 kca/kg (T₂) and 2800 kca/kg (T₃) metabolizable energy. Ejaculate samples were collected twice weekly from individual birds in each treatment and subjected to physical evaluations. Semen volume, sperm concentrations, sperm motility and percentage abnormal spermatozoa were highly affected (P<0.01) by energy contents of the diets. Semen quantity and quality oftoms in T₂ and T₃ were highly significantly (P<0.01) better than those in T₁ in semen volume, progressive sperm motility, spermatozoa concentration, total sperm andpercentage abnormal spermatozoa values. The study concluded that for improvement in the reproductive performance of indigenous turkey toms reared in a humid tropical environment, toms should be fed medium (2600 kca/kg ME) to high (2800 kca/kg ME) energy diets having 20% crude protein content.