IMPROVING SHEEP PRODUCTIVITY BY USING FRESH AND FROZEN SEMEN IN PALESTINE

Livestock sector in Palestine is an important one, contributing up to 46% of total agricultural income. The backbone of this sector is sheep and goats (small ruminants), dairy cattle and poultry. This study aimed to improve sheep productivity and develop long term breeding program for sheep breeds and crosses under field conditions in Palestine under different production systems. This experimental study included 169 ram sheep. The single semen collected from each ram was divided into four parts and extended using four extenders: milk, TRIS, TEST, and CJ-2 (diluted to 600 million sperm/ ml) and loaded into 0.25 ml straws for storage at 4 and 15° C. Most of the computer assisted sperm analyze the motility parameters were higher after extension and storage at 4 compared with 15°C (P < 0.05). Ram semen stored using milk or TRIS based extenders at 4° C. They are also retained similar sperm motility parameters but both were higher compared with TEST or CJ-2 extenders after storage for up to 3 days (P