D. KANEV and Y. MARCHEV
Agricultural Institute, BG-9700 Shumen, Bulgaria
KANEV, D. and Y. MARCHEV, 2003. Effect of thr reduced protein level of the compound feeds on the sperm quality in boars from the Danube White breed. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 9: 543–546
A production trial was carried out at the Agricultural Institute – Shumen. The trial comprised 16 boars from the Danube White breed allocated into two groups of 8 animals. The objective of the study was to establish the effect of reduced protein level on the sperm quality of boars from the Danube White breed. The animals from the first group (control group) consumed compound feed for boars (BSS 1642-96) – 17 % protein, and those from the second group consumed compound feed with reduced protein level (14 %). At the end of each subperiod, semen was collected from each boar and estimated according to the Instruction of artificial insemination in swine (Shumen, 1986). The results show that the reduced protein level did not have a negative effect on the sperm concentration and influenced more strongly the semen volume than the other traits studied. The subperiod influenced more strongly (P < 0.05) the sperm concentration.