Caudal epididymal sperm morphology and body measurements relationships of the Gwembe dwarf bucks

Although the Gwembe Dwarf (GD) is the most populous goat-breed in Zambia, not much reproductive information is available. In order to investigate sperm morphological characteristics, and their relationship to body and testicular measurements, 21 GD bucks were considered. The body length (BL), heart girth (HG), body weight (BW) and scrotal circumference (SC) were measured. Thereafter, semen was flushed from caudal epididymis and stained using the Eosin-Nigrosin stain. Stained spermatozoa were examined under light microscope at X40 and X100 magnification where 95.1% and 4.9% live and dead sperm cells were observed, respectively. 62.6% spermatozoa showed no morphological abnormalities while 1.25 and 29.0% had proximal and distal cytoplasmic droplets, respectively. Using a non-parametric Spearman"s correlation, HG, BL and BW were significantly and positively correlated with SC (P<0.05). However, no significant correlation was noted between body measurements with spermatozoa abnormalities. The testicular weight (TW) was negatively and significantly correlated with the double bent tail abnormality (P<0.05). Caudal epididymal semen exhibited minimal morphological abnormalities not significantly correlated to body and testicular measurements. The HG, BL and BW can be indicators of good breeding selection criteria in the GD bucks.