1Instituto TecnológicoAgropecuario No. 8 de Xoxocotla Morelos, Mexico.
2Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos Av. Universidad, 1001 Col. Chamilpa, Cuernavaca Morelos 62210, Mexico.
An experiment was designed to measure the relationship between repeated collection, semen characteristics and reaction time (RT) as an estimator of libido while isolating the effect of habituation to the female. Fourteen rams were equally and randomly assigned to two treatments. In T0 (control) an ejaculation of each ram was collected daily with an artificial vagina (AV) for 10 consecutive days. In T1, semen was collected from the rams as in T0, but starting 60 min after this collection, electroejaculation was applied three times, with a 60 min interval to reduce epidydimal sperm reserves avoiding habituation to a female stimulus. No difference (P>0.05) was found in average RT and average sperm concentration between groups, while average semen volume was larger (P<0.01) in T0 (0.82±0.04 ml) than in the T1 (0.64±0.04 ml). The slope for RT in the regression analysis was not different (P>0.05) from 0 in T0 and T1. However, a statistically significant (P<0.05) linear relationship was observed in ejaculate volumes and sperm concentration in the T1 as the experiment progressed. It was concluded that under no habituation to the female, rams RT was not affected by repeated collection, whereas, ejaculate volumes and sperm concentration declined proportionally as semen collection increased.
Sheep, rams, sexual behavior, libido, mating behavior
