Relationship between body weight, sexual secondary traits andepididymal semen quality in the Alpine goat.

The aim of this study was to evaluate relationships among body weight, sexual secondary traits andepididymal semen quality in young bucks.Body weight (BW), scrotal circumference (SC), horns diameter (HD), and horns length (HL) wererecorded monthly on 54 young Alpine bucks, from the second to the eighth month of life. After slaughter,testicles weight (TW) and epididymal weight (EW) were recorded and epididymal sperm quality wasevaluated. Epididymal sperm recovery was performed by using the retrograde flushing technique andsperm concentration, motility, viability and morphology were evaluated. Positive relationships betweenBW with TW (P < 0.001) and EW (P < 0.05), and SC with TW (P < 0.05) were observed. Some effects ofsecondary sexual traits on epididymal semen quality parameters were detected: BW and TW on spermproduction (concentration, total number of sperm and number of semen doses) (P < 0.05), and SC onthe presence of immature sperm (P < 0.05). In particular, it was shown that in goat species horns size isrelated to semen quality in terms of sperm production (concentration, total number of sperm and numberof semen doses) and presence of normal sperm (P < 0.05). In conclusion, scrotal circumference and hornssize could be used as parameters to select animals for breeding.