Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(8): 312-324 312 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.908.037 Semen Characteristics of NARI Suwarna Rams during Breeding (Winter) and Non-breeding (Summer) Seasons Venkanagouda Doddagoudar * , M. K. Tandle, R. G. Bijurkar, N. A. Patil, Ashok Pawar, Shrikant Kulkarni and Vinay Tikare Veterinary College, KVAFSU, Nandinagar, Bidar, Karnataka, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Many sheep breeds do have a fairly well documented gonadal activity cycle which is influenced mainly by photoperiod (Gómez- Brunet et al.,2008) and high latitudes (Sarlós et al., 2013). NARI-Suwarna is a strain of sheep developed by Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), Phaltan, Maharashtra with 90% Deccani or 60% Deccani + 30% Madgyal and 10% Garole breed proportions. It is known to inherit FecB gene from the Garole breed capable of producing and raising twin lambs, hence improving profitability in sheep farming. Seasonal variability in different breeds is found to be influenced by the latitudes where animals are raised, higher the latitude in the northern hemisphere, greater was the seasonality (Abecia et al., 2012). However, in tropical regions, other ambient factors such as ambient temperature, relative air humidity, rain distribution and nutrition seem to have effects on reproductive physiology in seasonal animals (Rosa and Bryant, 2003).Some studies have reported seasonal variability in tropical and subtropical breeds (Santos et al., 2015; Belkadi et al., 2017) whereas others have reported no seasonal variability (Benmoula et al., 2017; Malejane et al., 2014) International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 8 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The NARI Suwarna ram, a triple cross sheep strain known to carry the FecB gene was evaluated for seasonal variations in seminal characteristics during breeding (winter) and non-breeding (summer) seasons. In the study, semen samples from five sexually mature rams were evaluated for various seminal parameters, the live sperm percentage was significantly (p<0.05) higher during breeding (winter) season whereas other semen characteristics viz. semen volume, colour, wave motion, individual motility, sperm concentration, acrosome integrity, sperm abnormalities did not show any significant variation (p>0.05) between or within breeding (winter) and non-breeding (summer) seasons. Hence, it is concluded that NARI Suwarna rams can produce equally good quality semen in winter as well as summer seasons. Keywords NARI Suwarna, ram, Semen characteristics, Seasonal variation Accepted: 10 July 2020 Available Online: 10 August 2020 Article Info