Selection of breeding roosters during artificial insemination by the reaction of tonic immobility

The profitability increase of using laying hens is associated with an increase in their productivity and reduction of maintenance costs. This problem can be solved by two approaches: new methods for increasing the genetic potential of economically useful traits of chickens are being developed, and methods of ensuring the fullest realization of this potential are being sought. The main attention is paid to the selection of roosters, whose breeding qualities largely determine the “saturation” of the flock with the desirable genotypes. Analysis of the results of our research shows that roosters, especially in the maternal form, allocate very small amounts of ejaculate when massaging; most males have a difficult reaction to the massage. Moreover, by the age of 240 days, under the influence of long training, the number of such roosters decreased to 20-25%. However, the roosters, who later began to respond to the massage, often released ejaculates with volumes up to 0.2 cm3. Studies have shown that in the group of roosters with a small volume of ejaculate, the highest percentage (29.2%) of roosters was with a bad reaction to the massage and only 8.3% of roosters was with a good reaction. In the group with a large volume of ejaculates, there are 64.8% more roosters with a good response to the massage compared to the I group and 67.8% compared to the II group. When describing the duration of tonic immobility reaction of roosters, who release ejaculates with different volumes during the massage, which, as indicated earlier, reflects the level of arousal and inhibition processes, it turned out that the least duration of the state of tonic immobility reaction was found in roosters that give small volumes of sperm (60%) and only 10% of males had a duration of tonic immobility reaction within 409-900 seconds. There is a violation of the normal flow of neuroreflective processes in the body in the roosters with an increased process of arousal, which is manifested, for example, during natural mating. Such roosters have a bad reaction to massage and give small amounts of sperm. Therefore, determining the level of hypnotic state in roosters, that is, identifying the degree of balance between arousal and inhibitory processes can serve as an additional criterion for the phenotypic characteristics of breeding roosters with a certain response to massage and the volume of ejaculate.