The Siciliana is an ancient chicken breed of Southern Italy, orig-inating from Sicily. It is distinctive for its typical double or rose comb. Due to the widespread use of high-performing commercial hybrids, the Italian poultry industry has experienced significant losses in terms of animal genetic resources over the past few decades. This erosion has affected many native genotypes, includ-ing the Siciliana. The populations of this native breed are raised in very small numbers, and they suffer inbreeding and a loss of genetic diversity. It is extremely worrying that only 186 individ-uals were found during a recent census. In fact, the Siciliana breed is listed as ‘threatened preserved’, and recently, actions have been implemented to preserve this breed within the project ‘Conservation of biodiversity in Italian poultry breeds: TuBAvI-2’. Overall, the present project aimed to promote and support the conservation of the Italian poultry genetic resources through the combined application of in situ and ex situ strategies. The aim of this work was to describe the activities developed and the out-comes achieved within the creation of the first Italian Semen Cryobank of Autochthonous Chicken and Turkey Breeds, about the Siciliana breed.Sixteen cockerels were raised in outdoor pens on a private breed-ing farm (Molise region), and after a training period ranging from 3 to 6 weeks, semen was successfully collected from eleven donors with the abdominal massage technique. The quality of each fresh ejaculate was assessed shortly after collection, con-sidering sperm volume, concentration (photometric approach), sperm membrane integrity (SMI, flow-cytometry), and motility parameters (CASA system). Samples deemed suitable were pro-cessed and frozen; briefly, semen was diluted with freezing medium to reach a final sperm concentration of 1.0 × 109 sperm/mL and 2% of N-Methylacetamide and packaged into straws (0.25 mL).The cryopreservation process negatively impacts the post-thaw sperm quality, in fact, we found a significant decrease in SMI (91.7 ± 0.5 vs 37.7 ± 1.5), total (91.2 ± 0.5 vs 26.3 ± 1.3) and pro-gressive motility (26.7 ± 0.9 vs 3.3 ± 0.2). Throughout the project timeframe, 444 sperm doses, from 11 donors were stored in the cryobank. The implementation of semen cryobank for this breed, as well as for other autochthonous chicken breeds, provides an important connection with in situ strategies, to counteract genetic problems and prevent the extinction of breeds.
Italian semen cryobank of autochthonous chicken breeds: the case study of Siciliana breed
Nicolaia Iaffaldano
;Giusy Rusco;Emanuele Antenucci;Letizia Lerza;Michele Di Iorio
2023-01-01
Abstract
The Siciliana is an ancient chicken breed of Southern Italy, orig-inating from Sicily. It is distinctive for its typical double or rose comb. Due to the widespread use of high-performing commercial hybrids, the Italian poultry industry has experienced significant losses in terms of animal genetic resources over the past few decades. This erosion has affected many native genotypes, includ-ing the Siciliana. The populations of this native breed are raised in very small numbers, and they suffer inbreeding and a loss of genetic diversity. It is extremely worrying that only 186 individ-uals were found during a recent census. In fact, the Siciliana breed is listed as ‘threatened preserved’, and recently, actions have been implemented to preserve this breed within the project ‘Conservation of biodiversity in Italian poultry breeds: TuBAvI-2’. Overall, the present project aimed to promote and support the conservation of the Italian poultry genetic resources through the combined application of in situ and ex situ strategies. The aim of this work was to describe the activities developed and the out-comes achieved within the creation of the first Italian Semen Cryobank of Autochthonous Chicken and Turkey Breeds, about the Siciliana breed.Sixteen cockerels were raised in outdoor pens on a private breed-ing farm (Molise region), and after a training period ranging from 3 to 6 weeks, semen was successfully collected from eleven donors with the abdominal massage technique. The quality of each fresh ejaculate was assessed shortly after collection, con-sidering sperm volume, concentration (photometric approach), sperm membrane integrity (SMI, flow-cytometry), and motility parameters (CASA system). Samples deemed suitable were pro-cessed and frozen; briefly, semen was diluted with freezing medium to reach a final sperm concentration of 1.0 × 109 sperm/mL and 2% of N-Methylacetamide and packaged into straws (0.25 mL).The cryopreservation process negatively impacts the post-thaw sperm quality, in fact, we found a significant decrease in SMI (91.7 ± 0.5 vs 37.7 ± 1.5), total (91.2 ± 0.5 vs 26.3 ± 1.3) and pro-gressive motility (26.7 ± 0.9 vs 3.3 ± 0.2). Throughout the project timeframe, 444 sperm doses, from 11 donors were stored in the cryobank. The implementation of semen cryobank for this breed, as well as for other autochthonous chicken breeds, provides an important connection with in situ strategies, to counteract genetic problems and prevent the extinction of breeds.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
