SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 1199 Pakistan J. Zool., vol. 47(4), pp. 1199-1200, 2015. Effects of Induced Molting on Semen Quality of Indigenous Chicken Aseel Adnan Jabbar, 1 Waseem Abbass, 1 Amjad Riaz, 1 Mushtaq Ahmad, 1 Abdul Sattar 1 and Muhammad Akram 2 1 Department of Theriogenology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, 54000 2 Department of Poultry Production, Faculty of Animal Production and Technology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, 54000 Adnan Jabbar and Waseem Abbass contributed equally to this work Abstract.- Aseel is the very famous indigenous chicken breed of Pakistan which is facing the reproductive issues. In the modern poultry industry, molting is economically used for the improvement of reproductive performance. So the current experiment was designed to investigate the effect of molting on semen quality of indigenous aseel chicken. Roosters (n=16) were divided into two groups, molted (n=8) vs non molted (control) (n=8) group. Molting was performed through the method of feed restrictions. After the molting phase semen was analyzed for five weeks. The semen quality was significantly improved in terms of volume, concentration, motility, live sperms and reduced morphological defects by the molting. It was concluded that molting could be used for improvement of semen quality of indigenous aseel chicken to cover the reproductive problems. Key words: Indigenous chicken, aseel, molting, semen quality Aseel is the very famous indigenous chicken breed of Pakistan which is mostly reared in rural areas or as a game bird for fighting purposes. The aseel breed is known for its stamina, pugnacity, majestic gait, and dogged fighting properties. The aseel is favored in rural areas because of their _______________________________ * Corresponding author: dramjadriaz@uvas.edu.pk 0030-9923/2015/0004-1199 $ 8.00/0 Copyright 2015 Zoological Society of Pakistan adaptability to harsh environment and immunity to the diseases (Jatoi et al., 2014). The meat and eggs of aseel are supposed to have medicinal as well as aphrodisiac properties as they contain higher amount of protein, iron and amino acids (arginine, lysine, threonine and valine) as compared to the exotic birds (Mohan et al., 2008). However, aseel breed is facing the problems of poor growth rate, late maturity, less persistency and number of egg production, broodiness and low fertility and hatchability rates (Amjad et al., 2012). The low fertility may be due to the poor semen quality and there is no baseline data available about semen quality of Aseel. Molting is the natural physiological phenomenon of anorexia, broodiness, reproductive quiescence, shedding and replacement of feathers in female birds. Molting causes rejuvenation of reproductive organ which increases their reproductive potential. Molting is usually connected with hens, but it may also result in improvement in the semen quality of roosters. The reproductive capacity of chicken males starts to decline after 50 weeks of age so molting could be used to regain their reproductive capacity. There is no report available about the effect of molting on semen quality of indigenous aseel chicken. The current study was conducted to investigate the effects of molting on semen quality of indigenous aseel chicken. Materials and methods Aseel roosters (n=16) having 3.5-4 kg body weight and 1-1.5 years of age were selected on the basis of initial semen quality and caged individually. Males were divided into two groups equally, molted (n=8) vs non molted (control) (n=8). Molting was performed through the method of feed withdrawal by providing the 50 grams of maize feed daily. The 24 h water availability was guaranteed by the automatic watering system. No artificial light was provided. The duration of molting phase was 5 weeks. After the rest of 2 weeks semen analysis was performed. At the same time, non molted group was feed with 100 g of standard breeder diet once daily. The lightening schedule was 16h light and 8h darkness. The availability of water was 24 h. Semen collection was performed once in a