Study of Some Factors Affecting Efficiency of Frozen Buffalo Semen

Abstract

Buffalo population is worldwide distributed and estimated to be over 160 million (FAO, 2003). More than 90% of the population is in Asia where buffaloes play a prominent socioeconomic role in rural livestock production. In recent decades, buffalo farming has expanded widely in Mediterranean areas and in Latin America, but also in central / northern Europe where several herds were introduced. In Egypt, the estimated buffalo population was found to be 3.900 millions (FAO, 2005) producing about 0.270; 3,752 and 2,300 million tons of meat, hides and milk.

The application of AI in animal breeding strategies has been shown to have the potential to quickly disseminate genes from the supergenetic males for improving productive traits. In buffaloes such approach has always been marginal because of low conception rate following both natural and AI (Zicarelli et al., 1997). The causes of reduced fertility in buffaloes have long been considered multifactorial and range from inadequate female management to poor intrinsic semen quality.