The Fertility of Fowl Spermatozoa in Glycerol Diluents after Intrauterine Insemination

Abstract

It has been well established by Smith and Polge (1950) and Polge (1951), and our experience has been similar, that fowl sperm in diluents giving a final concentration of 15% glycerol are completely infertile whether the semen has been frozen or not unless the sperm suspension is dialysed to effect slow removal of the glycerol prior to insemination. The recommended time of dialysis has been given by Polge (1951) as 2 hours at 20°C. and the technique of insemination he used was that described by Burrows and Quinn (1939). The dialysis is time consuming and damaging to the sperm (if the semen has been deep frozen), therefore a more efficient insemination technique which would increase the fertility of poorly viable sperm samples would be useful since it might render the removal of the glycerol unnecessary. We have modified Burrows and Quinn’s method of A.I. to permit the semen to be …