Maintenance of Reproductive Competency in Breeder Males

The breeding performance is count upon the reproductive status of birds. In current poultry industry there are numerous challenges for reproductive competency. Many of these problems originated from upgrading body growth rate and egg production traits in poultry; which results weakening in reproductive characteristics. The continuous trend towards high yielding and fast growing birds ensuring that task of managing the breeder stock will not be easy more. Males make up fifty percent of the breeding flock. So, attention to male management requirements must be given the same priority as that of females.

Breeders need to be kept under ideal conditions for maximum life of flock fertility. Fertility must be very good to get better hatchability. If maximum fertility is there then more chicks per hen can be obtained by proper and careful hatchery operations.

With advancement in age, broiler breeder reproductive performance starts to decline. In case of female’s body weight and egg weight increases, egg numbers go down and hatchability drops. Also cases of infertility, embryonic mortality, number of cull chick’s increases. In males certain behavioral aspects like increase in body weight, reduced mounting interest, lower libido, lower semen volume and viscosity etc are observed. This is the real period where poultry breeders are more worried about the hatchability.

Drop in fertility in old breeding flocks

After 40 weeks of age, the breeder hen needs more frequent mating to sustain high fertility while at the same age; the rooster breeding efficiency also goes down.

Mating related problems

Overweight/underweight rooster - reduces their ability to complete mating. In deep litter system, ability to keep both sexes on target body weight is closely related to rooster exclusion from the hen feed trough.
Overmating/fighting in males - Monitoring the sex ratio in the farm is very important. The ideal sex ratio is breed and condition dependent. The more aggressive the breed the fewer males needed.
Quality & ability of rooster present in the farm - good feet and legs, normal beak (should not be cross) and back bones (should not be arched)
Research indicated that old, stale sperm in the oviduct is associated with poor chick quality and early embryonic mortality (EEM). AI or mating must occur frequently enough to ensure that relatively fresh and viable sperm are available to the hen at the time she ovulates.
Fertilizing potential of chicken varies, even within a flock. This variation in male breeder quality is either due to environment, management, nutrition and genetic makeup etc. individually or may be the combined effect of these factors.

Semen related problems

Quantity and quality of semen by male chicken which directly affects the fertility and in turn hatchability.

Sperm Formation and its Quality

Chicken sperms are produced within testes which carries the genetic material from the male. Sperm formation takes about 15 days. The chicken semen contains around 5 billion sperm per cc, about 25 times as much as that of a human. Once gets matured and if maintained properly chicken will manufacture about 35000 sperm every second of his life. The chicken's reproductive system is very sensitive to the bird's environment and under poor conditions the reproductive system i.e. testes will dwindle which may affects semen production.

Sperm Mobility

The term sperm mobility denotes the net movementof a sperm population against resistance at body temperature.Even though sperm cells are self-propelled DNA delivery vehicles,their self-propulsive nature is neither uniform among spermwithin an ejaculate nor among males within flocks. It is noteworthy that populations showing modest variation withrespect to semen volume or sperm concentration often show considerablevariation with respect to sperm mobility.

Also notable, broiler breeder fertility is a function of sperm mobilityphenotype when hens are inseminated artificially. Therefore, sperm mobility may be a useful trait for improvingbroiler breeder reproductive efficiency.

Immobile spermcells, although viable, compromise the effectivenessof anygiven insemination dose. Therefore the broiler breederfertility is most depending upon the function of sperm mobility.

Fertilization

A problem with either sperm or egg production can decrease fertility.

After sperm leave the testes, they enter the epididymis, where they gain the ability to swim. The sperm then enter the vas deferens where they are stored until the rooster mates with a hen.

When the egg yolk is mature, it leaves the ovary and is captured by the infundibulum. After the mating process occurs normally, semen is deposited by the male in the hen’s cloaca at the rate of approximately 100 to 200 million sperm per ejaculation. Following mating or artificial insemination the sperm enter the hen's oviduct and are stored within sperm storage glands.

Sperm travel up the oviduct to the infundibulum to join with the egg yolk. Only sperm that can swim will enter these sperm storage sites. These glands can store more than half a million sperm. Sperm can remain alive in these glands and fertilize eggs for up to 3 weeks.

A hen will have maximum fertility for only about 3 to 4 days after one mating. For this reason, the male-to-female ratio in a flock must be enough to ensure mating of every hen every 3 days or so.

As a matter of fact, the more sperm that enter the yolk, the more likely the egg will be fertilized. Around 30 sperm must enter the egg near the germinal disc to insure a 95 percent chance of fertilization. While it is true that only one sperm is necessary to fertilize an egg, the probability of an egg's being fertilized by only one sperm's reaching and penetrating it is very low.

Fertility is the primary factor resulting in fewer chicks hatched per hen housed since even the best incubators and hatchery management procedures cannot produce chicks from infertile eggs! In addition, losses in hatch due to early dead embryos often occur concurrently with a reduction in fertility.

Fertility & Embryonic Mortality

The conditions which cause low sperm numbers or single sperm activity at the site of fertilization can cause reductions in the actual number of chicks hatched. When few sperm are available to fertilize an egg in broiler breeders there is an associated reduction in fertility as well as an increase in early embryonic mortality. This is a common occurrence in flocks of older breeder hens or any other flock experiencing infrequent mating activity.

A necessary component of successful breeding is maintaining male breeders of good sex desire or libido with excellent quality semen to continue to mate throughout the life of the flock…

Natural Male Breeding Efficiency Optimizer

Hatch Up is unique and natural combination of different herbal alkaloids which exerts beneficial effects on gametogenic and androgenic functions of testes. Hatch Up also possesses strong aphrodisiac activity thereby increases secretions of accessory glands and enhances the libido of the birds.

Unlike the vitamins or other nutrients, Hatch Up helps in growth, development and functional maturity of primary and secondary sex organs. The composite herbs in Hatch Up are well documented to improve the libido and quality & quantity of semen in males.

Since Ayurveda, plants such as Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), Tribulus terrestris (Gokshura), Mucuna pruriens (Atmagupta), Argyreia speciosa (Brahad darak), Anacyclus pyrethrum (Akar karam) etc. are considered most potent plants and are used to improve the libido, to rebuild sexual vitality and to restore proper and healthy sexual functions.

Many researchers worked to assess the role of phytochemical actives in enhancement of reproductive performance. Here an attempt is made to review the same.

Vanamala (1995) successfully demonstrated that the herbal formulation minimize the damaging effects of stress on the quality and quantity of the semen. The results are depicted in Table 1.

Table 1

Upenrda et al (2000) studied the effect of herbal preparation in male broiler breeder and observed that there was significantly higher seminal volume per ejaculation, sperm motility, seminal fluid viscosity and semen quality of males from the group supplemented with herbal powder as compared to the control.

Withania somnifera

Stress has been reported to be a causative factor for male infertility. Abbas et al (2009) confirmed the role of stress in male infertility and the ability of Withania somnifera to treat stress-related infertility. Withania somnifera treatment resulted in a decrease in stress, improved the level of anti-oxidants and improved overall semen quality in a significant number manner.

Withania somnifera Improves Semen Quality in Stress-Related Male Fertility; Abbas Ali Mahdi, Kamla Kant Shukla, Mohammad Kaleem Ahmad, Singh Rajender, Satya Narain Shankhwar, Vishwajeet Singh and Deepansh Dalela; eCAM (2009).

Gayatri et al (2010) concluded that Abutilon indicum and Withania somnifera both possesses marked aphrodisiac activity complying many facets such as enhancement in libido, increase in the sexual performance, penile erection and anabolism,increased spermatogenesis as well as sperm validity.

Pharmacological Evaluation of Ayurvedic Plants for Aphrodisiac Activity in Experimental Animals; Gayatri Ganu, Dheeraj H. Nagore, Mithilesh Rangari, and Harsh Gupta; Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Vol. 7 [2010], Iss. 1, Art 31 .

Ahmed et al (2010) demonstrated that treatment with Withania somnifera effectively reduced oxidative stress, as assessed by decreased levels of various oxidants and improved level of diverse antioxidants. Moreover, the levels of T, LH, FSH and PRL, good indicators of semen quality, were also reversed in infertile subjects after treatment with the herbal preparation.

Withania somnifera improves semen quality by regulating reproductive hormone levels and oxidative stress in seminal plasma of infertile males; Ahmad MK, Mahdi AA, Shukla KK, Islam N, Rajender S, Madhukar D, Shankhwar SN, Ahmad S.; Fertil Steril. 2010 Aug;94(3):989-96.

Myristica fragrans

Myristica fragrans Houtt. (nutmeg) has been mentioned in Unani medicine to be of value in the management of male sexual disorders. Tajuddin et als (2005) confirmed that nutmeg possesses aphrodisiac activity, increasing both libido and potency in male rats and can be used in the management of sexual disorder in males.

An experimental study of sexual function improving effect of Myristica fragrans Houtt. (nutmeg); Tajuddin , Shamshad Ahmad , Abdul Latif , Iqbal Ahmad Qasmi and Kunwar Mohammad Yusuf Amin; BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2005, 5:16.

Tribulus terrestris

Tribulus terrestris L. (Zygophyllaceae) have been used as an aphrodisiac both in the Indian and Chinese traditional systems of medicine. Administration of Tribulus terrestris extract (TT) increased sexual behaviour and intracavernous pressure both in normal and castrated rats and these effects were probably due to the androgen increasing property of TT.

Effect of Tribulusterrestris on nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-diaphorase activity and androgen receptors in rat brain;

K. Gauthaman and P.G. Adaikan; J Ethnopharmacol (2005); 96(1-2):127-32.

In conclusion, broiler breeder performance can be enhanced with the use of phytochemical rejuvenators which ultimately results in more number of healthy chicks.

Features & Benefits Hatch Up

Scientific validation

1. Effect of Hatch Up on Total sperm count

The results indicated that Hatch Up improves the sperm concentration, which will oblige in improving the fertility & hatchability.

2. Effect of Hatch Up on Sperm abnormalities

The results indicated that Hatch Up reduces the sperm abnormalities, there by improves the fertility & hatchability.

3. Effect of Hatch Upon Serum total Testosterone Level

The results indicated that Hatch Up improves androgen level in the body there by helps to improve the sex desire (libido) and fertility & hatchability.

Usage of Hatch Up