Volume: 57 Issue: 1
Year: 2026, Page: 14-19, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2026.57.1.14-19
Received: Aug. 2, 2025 Accepted: Dec. 3, 2025 Published: March 31, 2026
The present study evaluated the semen quality parameters of Malabari bucks during pre-monsoon (March- May), south-west monsoon (June-September), post-monsoon (October-November) and winter (December-February) seasons. The semen ejaculates (n=120) collected from five healthy adult Malabari bucks maintained at the Artificial Insemination Centre, Department of Animal Reproduction, Gynaecology and Obstetrics, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pookode, Wayanad (11.5393° N and 76.0202° E) were used for the study. Average THI was found to be 74.79, 71.33, 71.29 and 68.86 in the respective seasons. The ejaculates were subjected to preliminary evaluation in terms of volume (mL), sperm concentration (millions/mL), progressive motility of spermatozoa (%), viability (%), morphological abnormalities (%), acrosome integrity (%) and functional membrane integrity (%). In all the four seasons, seminal plasma was subjected to SDS PAGE for protein profiling. There was significant decrease in the semen ejaculate volume (p< 0.001) during pre-monsoon season. But, no significant effect of season could be appreciated in the other quality parameters of fresh semen such as mass activity, concentration, progressive motility, morphological abnormalities, acrosome integrity and functional membrane integrity. SDS PAGE protein profile of seminal plasma revealed significant difference in terms of number of protein bands and their incidence rate. It can be concluded that seasonal variation exists in the semen ejaculate volume and seminal plasma proteins of Malabari bucks and a general trend of decrease in the quality of Malabari buck semen in pre-monsoon season could also be revealed.
Keywords: Malabari, buck semen, south-west monsoon, post monsoon, winter and pre-monsoon
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© 2026 Sankar et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Sankar, V., Bhai, K. L., Promod K., Azeez, A., Chacko, L., & Sebastian, R. (2025). Influence of season on the quality of Malabari buck semen. Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences 57 (1), 14-19, https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2026.57.1.14-19