Influence of doe exposure and season on reaction time and semen quality of male rabbits.

The objective of the present research was to evaluate the influence of doe exposure on reaction time (RT) and five semen attributes of male rabbits in winter and spring. Fifteen-month-old selected sexually experienced fertile New Zealand White male rabbits (n=18) were randomly allocated to one of two treatments: (1) doe exposure; and (2) no doe exposure (control). Doe exposure was done with prepubertal replacement does separated by an adjacent wire-mesh wall; females were changed in an every other week schedule. Semen collection lasted 14 weeks, 7 in winter and 7 in spring; collection was twice a week using an artificial vagina and a teaser female, and two ejaculates were obtained at each collection. In total, 728 ejaculates were analyzed statistically. Analyses of variance were under a mixed model where fixed effects were treatments, season and ejaculate, rabbit was the random effect. No significant (P≥0.05) interaction of treatment with season was found. Doe exposure improved (P≤0.05) RT and four of the five semen attributes: RT was shorter (-0.9 sec) and volume (+0.21 ml), sperm motility (+17.4 percent units), concentration (+49.7 x 10) and total live normal motile sperms (+44.5 x 10) were higher. Spring showed better (P≤0.05) RT and semen attributes than winter. First ejaculate was better (P≤0.05) than the second except for sperm motility, which in the second ejaculate was 15.3 percent units higher than in the first one. There was a significant effect (P≤0.05) of the interaction treatment x ejaculate on total live normal motile sperms (TLNMS): bucks with doe exposure had a higher TLNMS in the first ejaculate (126.3±9.2 x 10) than in the second (107.8±9.2 x 10), while in bucks isolated from females the second ejaculate showed higher TLNMS (84.5±9.2 x 10) than the first (58.4±9.2 x 10). Doe exposure can enhance sexual behaviour and semen attributes of male rabbits in winter and spring.