The Usefulness of Captive Kept Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus L.) as the Semen Donors for Artificial Insemination and Gene Pool Preservation In vitro

Captive breeding of birds threatened by extinction in zoological gardens or other closed aviary centres is one of the methods allowing their protection and gene pool preservation ex situ in vivo. Such birds are usually kept in captivity lifelong and serve as parents of several new generations that can be further released into natural environment, or males are used as semen donors for artificial insemination and gene banking. Therefore, the fecundity of such flocks (number of laid egg and spermatozoa quantity and quality) is very important. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of captive kept capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus L.) as semen donors in three subsequent reproductive seasons, based on the assessment of manually collected semen quality. Male response to dorso‐abdominal massage, ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, motility and morphology were evaluated individually at three succeeding years. Depending on individual male properties and year of collection, the number of positive reactions to semen collection attempts (i.e. ending with ejaculation) varied from 44.4% to 100.0%; single ejaculate volume ranged from 10 to 300 μl, spermatozoa concentration from 10 × 10⁶ per ml to 3520 × 10⁶ per ml and percentage of live morphologically normal spermatozoa from 19.3 to 80.3%. The highest average value (66.7) of semen quality factor (SQF) was noted for a 2‐year‐old male (varying from 1.9 to 258.1), while the lowest for ten‐ (4.8; varying from 0.1 to 17.0) and 7‐year‐old (6.6; varying between 0.6 and 13.6). Assuming that for AI purposes, the ejaculate quality has to be at minimum 10 SQF, obtained results indicate that majority of capercaillie kept in captivity, both young (2–3 years old) and older (up to 10 years old), can be valuable semen producers in succeeding seasons.     

粤西地区三种不同土壤上的热带绿肥牧草引种试验

我国热带地区具有高温多雨、雨量分布不均匀且多暴雨的特点,容易引起水土流失,土壤有机质分解快,养分淋溶流失强烈,因此热带地区的红壤和砖红壤的有机质和速效养分含量都很低。热带经济林木和果园间种绿肥覆盖作物可以保持水土,增进地力,促使主作物速生高产^[1,2],而建立牧草基地以发展畜牧业和种植绿肥是增加优质有机肥料来源的有效途径。这样才有可能增施大量有机肥料,不断提高土壤肥力,保证农林作物稳产高产。     

Contrasting influences of inundation and land use on the rate of floodplain restoration

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