Artificial insemination practice in British United Turkeys: a report in Iran

ABSTRACT

No domestic availability to breeder turkey stocks and turkey hatching eggs prompted the present experiment that aimed to evaluate the feasibility of a conventional artificial insemination [AI] procedure in British United Turkey [BUT] for the first time in Iran. Broiler turkeys were restrictedly fed, grown for 46 weeks, and used for the current study [10 turkey toms and 24 turkey hens in total]. After a 3 week period of habituating the toms to abdominal massage, the pooled semen was used for insemination after the dilution in sterilized and homogenized low-fat milk [at the ratio of 1 to 6]. The hens were inseminated [1400 h] and hatching eggs were collected [n = 148]. All the eggs were broken open to assess the fertility rate. Although being lower than the conventional average fertility rate noticed for breeder turkeys in the production manuals [91%], a fertility rate of 61.5% was obtained. The present report provided a preliminary data on the feasibility of the conventional procedure used in chickens to artificially inseminate the turkey, using low-fat milk as a simple available extender. The present findings might also be promising to the future establishment of turkey breeder enterprise in Iran