EFFECT OF CENTRIFUGATION AND MELATONIN HORMONE ON COOLED SEMEN CHARACTERISTICS OF IRAQI LOCAL ROOSTERS

This experiment was conducted in the poultry fields of the Department of Animal Production / College of Agriculture, University of Anbar. During the period from From 1 December 2021 to 1 April 2022, by using 40 Iraqi native roosters at age 33 week. In order to study the effect of semen storage process after semen centrifugation and replacement of seminal plasma with Lake diluent 1960 intended for semen preservation with the addition of the hormone melatonin as an antioxidant on semen quality characteristics. This study was carried out by 200 birds (40 roosters and 160 chickens) raised in a hall divided into cages. It was divided into five treatments for each treatment three replicates according to the following division: T1: control treatment T2: add dilution in a ratio of 1:2 only T3: add diluent containing the hormone melatonin at a concentration (1 mMol. L‾¹) T4: use centrifugation with Adding the diluent in a ratio of 1:2 only T5: using centrifugation with the addition of a diluent containing the hormone melatonin at a concentration of (1 mMol. L‾¹), and for a period of 72 hours, the results showed a significant superiority (P<0.01) of the T3 treatment for the indicators of semen quality (Sperm motility, percentage of dead sperm, total abnormalities, acrosome, head, midsection and tail) at a 36-hour storage period compared to the control treatment and the rest of the treatments and during the different storage periods, while the rest of the treatment did not record any significant differences. We conclude from this study that it is possible to add the hormone melatonin at a concentration of (1 mMol. L‾¹) to semen preservation diluents in order to improve the characteristics of semen through the role of the hormone as an antioxidant, which reduces oxidative stress on sperms.