Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-nptnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-18T03:37:20.925Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

IX.—On the Relation of Fertility in Fowls to the Amount of Testicular Material and Density of Sperm Suspension

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

F. B. Hutt
F. B. Hutt
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding Research Department, University of Edinburgh
Get access

Summary

1. Fertility tests of eight partially castrated cocks and three controls show that within quite wide limits of fertility and of testis size the fertility of the male fowl is not in any way dependent upon size of the testis.

2. The average density of sperm suspension was found to be approximately four million spermatozoa per cubic millimetre for the thirty-six samples examined from ten males.

3. The variations in the average density of sperm suspension from different birds ranged from 825,000 to over 7,000,000 cells per cu. mm., but within this range the density of sperm suspension bore no relation to fertility.

4. The number of sperm per cubic millimetre of semen appears to be entirely independent of the size of the testes within the ranges covered by this experiment.

5. Compensatory hypertrophy to a degree approximating to the normal weight of both testes was observed in the retained right testes of cocks castrated unilaterally on the left side at one week of age.

6. Exceptions to the rule of compensatory hypertrophy included birds with subcutaneous testis grafts and two in which one whole testis and part of the other had been removed.

7. It is suggested that fertility in the male fowl is dependent upon the physiological efficiency of the spermatozoa rather than upon their quantitative production.

Type
Proceedings
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 49 , 1930 , pp. 102 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1930

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Benoit, J. (1925), “Sur la Hypertrophie Compensatrice après Castration uni laterale chez le Coq domestique,” Compt. Rend. de l'Acad. Sci., vol. clxxx, pp. 1690–92.Google Scholar
Craft, W. A., M'Elroy, C. H., and Penquite, Robert (1926), “The Influence of Certain Feeds upon the Production of Spermatozoa by the Domestic Chicken,” Poult. Sci., vol. v, pp. 187–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crew, F. A. E. (1926), “On Fertility in the Domestic Fowl,” Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xlvi, pp. 230–38.Google Scholar
Domm, L. V., and Juhn, Mary (1927), “Compensatory Hypertrophy of the Testis in Brown Leghorns,” Biol. Bull., vol. lii, pp. 458–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, L. C. (1927), “Selective Fertilisation in Fowls,” Poult. Sci., vol. vi, pp. 201–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, R. A. (1925), Statistical Methods for Research Workers, Edinburgh, Oliver & Boyd.Google Scholar
Gowen, John W. (1926), “Cystic Testes. A Cause of Male Sterility in the Domestic Fowl,” Poult. Sci., vol. v, pp. 146–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, L. F. (1914), “Vitality and Activity of Sperm Cells and Artificial usemination of the Chicken,” Oklahoma Epx. Stat. Circ., No. 30.Google Scholar
Polowzow, Wera (1927), “Die Spermatozoen produktion beim Pferde I. Mittellung. Über den Einfluss der häufigen Kohabitationen auf den Spermien-produktion,” Pflügers Arch. f. gesamte Phys. des Mensch. u. d. Tiere., vol. ccxviii, pp. 374–85.Google Scholar
Savage, A., Williams, W. W., and Fowler, N. M. (1927), “A Statistical Study of the Head-length Variability of Bovine Spermatozoa and its Application to the Determination of Fertility,” Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, vol. xxxi, sect. 5, pp. 425–50.Google Scholar
“Student” (1907), “On the Error of Counting with a Hæmacytometer,” Biometrica, vol. v, pp. 351–60.Google Scholar
Walton, A. (1927), “The Relation between ‘Density’ of Sperm Suspension and Fertility as determined by Artificial Insemination of Rabbits,” Proc. Roy. Soc., B, vol. ci, pp. 303–15.Google Scholar
Williams, W. W., and Savage, A. (1925), “Observations on the Seminal Micropathology of Bulls,” Cornell Veterinarian, vol. xv, pp. 353–75.Google Scholar