Background:
Poultry semen is highly concentrated and low in volume. It is further concentrated after ejaculation due to evaporation of water from semen at room temperature that makes impractical to handle it in undiluted form. This event leads to the killing of spermatozoa in fresh semen that requires immediate dilution of semen for achieving higher fertility in poultry through artificial insemination (A.I.) technology. Technology Details To handle the above-said problem of poultry semen and its maximum utilization using A.I. technology, dilution of semen is the only alternate. This is the reason we have developed a “CARI poultry semen diluent”. The diluent is a media which provides an ideal environment for the survival of spermatozoa outside of the body. Using this diluent, highly concentrated chicken/ poultry semen from a single valuable or proven sire can be diluted several folds for inseminating a large number of females through the application of A.I. which is not possible under natural mating. In this way, diluent will increase semen volume thereby permit the uniform distribution of spermatozoa in media resulted in very good fertility by AI in hens. In addition, diluent prolongs the sperm survival of semen in vitro condition (24-48 hrs.). Using the poultry semen diluent, the services of the superior male can be used maximally by A.I. technique. Without the diluent successful application of A.I. is not possible. A.I. is the best tool for genetic improvement. By virtue of the diluent, the technique of A.I. presently is employed as a biggest and cheapest tool for improving the poultry production associated with the reduction of the cost of poultry breeding by the maintenance of less number of males. Using the technique of semen dilution, semen can be preserved for several hours without significant loss of fertilizing ability. This will be very beneficial in transporting the semen of valuable sire of inheritance for high egg and meat yield from one place to another part of the country/world. In India, poultry is 90 % dominated by chicken. Hence, this diluent is mainly targeted to the chicken. However, it also works well in other poultry species like turkey, duck and guinea fowl etc.