Identification of seminal parameters predictive of conception rates in Angus and Nelore bulls used in TAI.

The ability to predict male fertility is highly desirable for bulls used in AI. Timed artificial insemination (TAI) represents a breakthrough in the use of AI in Brazil and other countries. Numerous causes contribute to the wide range of results and/or unsatisfactory pregnancy rates in TAI programs, highlighting the factors inherent in the bovine female in addition to several factors inherent to quality of semen used. Regarding the quality of semen used in AI programs, differences reported in fertility could be attributed to variation in sperm qualitative characteristics. Consequently, the success of bovine AI programs largely depends on the use of good quality semen. When only high fertility bulls are used, better conception rates are achieved, reducing costs of reproductive programs. Thus, some authors have shown that semen used in TAI has great impact on pregnancy rates, and various biomarkers of sperm quality are required to predict the fertility of bull spermatozoa (Oliveira et al., 2013, Holden et al., 2017). Our goal is to correlate different methods of post-thaw semen evaluation with the P/AI of Nelore (zebu) cows subjected to TAI to identify the candidate predictors of conception rate.Proceedings of the international Bull Fertility Conference, 2018, Westport