The Fertilizing Capacity of Diluted Chicken Semen

Abstract

THE use of the technique of artificial insemination with chickens is at the present time limited to a few breeders and to experimental conditions. A few reports have indicated that artificial insemination of turkeys may be of practical use. The usefulness of the technique is partly limited by the fact that adequate diluents or extenders have not been developed. The number of spermatozoa per ml. of fowl semen is relatively high, so theoretically it should be possible to use rather high rates of dilution. Bull semen is normally diluted as much as 1 to 40 to 1 to 60 for the artificial insemination of dairy cows. This comparison, however, may not be justified since bull spermatozoa need to remain viable only a short time in the uterus of the cow, while in the oviduct of the hen they must remain functional for several days. The effect of diluting chicken semen . . .