Semen characteristics of the guinea fowl Numida meleagris meleagris

Eighteen adult exotic Golden Sovereign guinea fowl (Numida meleagris meleagris) males identified by leg bands and housed individually in cages were ejaculated two times a week at 4- and 3-d intervals (Mondays and Thursdays) for 6 wk. Semen was obtained manually by gently massaging the dorso-lateral lumbo-sacral region. Semen collection and evaluation were done between 1400 and 1800 h each day of test. Mean semen volume was 0.032 +/- 0.001 ml, sperm motility was 37.1 +/- 0.1% and sperm concentration/ml was 2.62 +/- 0.01 x 10(9). Percentage live sperm averaged 91.6 +/- 0.1, while the mean percentage morphologically normal spermatozoa was 76.9 +/- 0.5. Primary and secondary sperm abnormalities were 11.9 +/- 0.2% and 11.3 +/- 0.2%, respectively. Birds differed significantly in all ejaculate characteristics studied except percent secondary abnormalities, indicating that considerable variation exists for improvement of these semen traits. There were significant bird x collection interval (P<0.05) and bird x week (P<0.01) interactions for sperm concentration/ml and bird x week interaction for sperm motility (P<0.05). The results generally are within acceptable levels and show that the semen is suitable for use in artificial insemination.