Effect of Season on Semen Quality Parameters in Murrah Buffalo Bulls

The present study was undertaken to know the seasonal infl uence on various seminal attributes in Murrah buffalo bulls. Data on 156 ejaculates of eight Murrah buffalo bulls (nearly 30 to 58 months) maintained under identical nutrition and management conditions were selected randomly from Artifi cial Breeding Complex, NDRI, Karnal, India, from May, 2006 to April, 2007. The information on 156 ejaculates was subjected to least square analysis to quantify the effect of non genetic factor (summer, rainy and winter) on various semen quality parameters. The overall least square mean values of the 8 Murrah buffalo bulls for ejaculate volume (ml), mass activity, Initial motility (%), Sperm concentration (106/ml), Total sperm output (106), Non-eosinophilic count (%), HOST (%), Acrosome integrity (%), Head abnormality (%), Mid-piece abnormality (%), Tail abnormality (%), Total abnormality (%), pH and Osmolality (mOsmol/Kg) were 2.66±0.10; 2.54±0.70; 60.64±0.02; 1016.68±21.25; 2748.67±122.86; 67.20±0.03; 40.88±0.03; 52.72±0.01; 70.10±0.02; 2.30±0.001; 1.62±0.01; 5.50±0.002; 9.47±0.002; 6.78±0.20 and 277.78±2.40, respectively. Seasonal variations had no signifi cant effect on ejaculate volume (2.69, 2.71 and 2.56), mass activity (2.56, 2.40 and 2.67) and total sperm output (2510.08, 2812.44 and 2923.49) in Murrah buffalo bulls, but it had a signifi cant (P<0.05) effect on pH (6.85, 6.77 and 6.71) of semen. The present data clearly indicated that there was highly signifi cant (P<0.01) effect of season on seminal attributes such as initial motility (56.18, 59.64 and 65.95), sperm concentration (870.62, 1028.20 and 1151.20), non-eosinophilic count (61.91, 65.65 and 73.74), HOST reacted sperm percent (47.05, 48.32 and 62.67), acrosome integrity (65.04, 68.64 and 76.28), sperm abnormalities (HEAD: 2.79,