Artificial insemination in Payoya goats: factors affecting fertility

The present study was conducted to determine the effect of different factors on pregnancy rate after artificial insemination (AI) with refrigerated and frozen semen in Payoya goats reared under commercial farm conditions. A total of 820goats,belongingto10farms,wasused.Thetotalnumberofstudiedinseminationswas1384overa4-yearperiod.Factors considered in the study were year, farm, month of AI, age of the goat at AI, dose of progestagen, eCG dose, buck, type of semen (refrigerated or frozen), technician, number of goats to be inseminated (group size), incidences at AI (problems, no problems, trans-cervical insemination), distance from semen collection to farm, number of previous kidding, kidding-AI interval,andmilkproduction.Thevariablestudiedwasfertility,expressedassuccessfulkidding.Meanfertilitywas59%.Six (farm, age, group size, transcervical AI, number of kidding and milk production) of the 15 factors studied presented a significant(P <0.05)effectonfertilityafterAI.Ourresultsdemonstratedthatitisdifficulttocontrolallthecriticalaspectsof AI programs at the farm level. These factors should be controlled and the variations that could compromise the chance of beingpregnantmustbeknownbytechnicians.Thegoodfertilityresultsobtainedduringthenon-breedingseasonemphasise the implementation of this technique so as to improve the competitiveness of the dairy Payoya breed flocks.