Semen characteristics of Ile-de-France rams of different age and physical condition.

A breeding soundness examination (BSE) involving animal physical examination, scrotal circumference (SC) and semen evaluation was undertaken on 80 Ile-de-France rams at a government breeding farm, 32 km south-west of Casablanca (Morocco) from March to May 1988. A large percentage of rams (21.4%) was found to be unfit for breeding due to physical and genital abnormalities; 11 and 5% had disorders of the feet and respiratory system; upon genital palpation, 17.5, 13.8 and 7.5% of animals had orchitis, epididymitis and posthitis, respectively. The SC increased with age from 28.8+/-3.2 cm at </=2 yr to 35.4+/-3.5 cm at 4 yr or more (P<0.001). The quality of semen was significantly (P<0.01) depressed by orchitis and epididymitis (P<0.01) but not by ram age. Semen volume decreased from 1.1+/-0.6 ml in rams with normal genitalia to 0.5+/-0.4 and 0.25+/-0.2 ml in animals with orchitis and epididymitis, respectively. Similarly, sperm cell concentration declined from 2.5+/-1.2 to 1.1+/-0.7 and 1.6+/-1.2 billion per ml, while sperm motility dropped from 81.5+/-12.3% to 58.3+/-14.3 and 61.3+/-26.5%. The percentage of abnormal spermatozoa was also higher among rams with orchitis (24.3+/-17.5%) and epididymitis (20.7+/-24.3%) than among rams with normal genitalia (6.4+/-6.2%). We concluded that older rams need better health care to improve their semen production properties that may be influencing fertility.