Abstract

The present aimed to investigate for the first time the characteristics and conservation of post-mortem sperm, obtained from epididymis and the vas deferens of 18 pairs of adult local chicken cocks from the east of Algeria (age, 12-24 months, body weight 1.50-2.53 kg). And compare the sperm quality at the epididymis and the vas deferens levels, the efficacy of two post-mortem sperm retrieval techniques, the flushing and float-out methods in the collection of local chicken cock’s sperm, and the effects of conservation in situ at different temperatures (2h and 24h at 20°C and after refrigeration at 4°C for 24h). The quality was significantly higher (0.13±0.05ml vs 0.72±0.12ml) in the vas deferens compared to the epididymis, whereas spermatozoa abnormalities and chromatin quality did not differ in both the epididymis and vas deferens. No significant difference was observed between the flushing and float-out methods. Concentration (3.33±1.63 million sperm vs 1.75±0.76 million sperm), initial motility (77.50±6.89% vs 75.83±8.61%), viability (75±10.39% vs 74.67±10.15%) and abnormality (30.33±4.68% vs 30.33±4.68%), only the volume was significantly higher (0.72±0.12ml vs 0.17±0.08ml). However, the effects of conservation in situ, at 25°C and 4°C for 24h, showed a significant difference for viability and motility of the spermatozoa recovered from vas deferens, and no significant difference for abnormality and acrosome integrity. Therefore, it can be concluded that good quality semen samples can be collected from the vas deferens with the flushing method, and semen of Algerian local cocks can be preserved at 20°C for 24h.