{"id":1383,"date":"2026-01-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/?p=1383"},"modified":"2026-07-10T09:02:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:02:30","slug":"new-paper-on-breeder-male-fertility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/2026\/01\/23\/new-paper-on-breeder-male-fertility\/","title":{"rendered":"New Paper on Breeder Male Fertility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are excited to announce the publication of a new paper from our lab exploring the temporal dynamics of sperm morphology in broiler breeder males. The study, led by <strong>Kolton Witherspoon<\/strong> as first author, provides important insights into how sperm quality changes over the production cycle and what this means for fertility management in commercial poultry operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sperm morphology is a critical determinant of male fertility, yet surprisingly little is known about how these traits change as males age or respond to environmental and physiological stressors. Using a longitudinal analysis of Ross (Yield Plus) broiler breeders, the study tracked sperm morphology across the lifespan of the birds to reveal patterns that would be invisible in single-timepoint assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A key finding is that males reach peak breeding utility at roughly 9.5 months of age (about 38 weeks) \u2014 earlier than commonly assumed \u2014 after which the proportion of morphologically normal sperm declines sharply and non-linearly. These patterns point to early reproductive aging and suggest a role for age-related oxidative stress in driving the decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The findings have practical implications for breeding programs and flock management. By understanding when and how sperm quality declines, producers can optimize reproductive timing, adjust management practices, and develop more accurate predictive tools for male fertility. This work also sets the stage for deeper mechanistic studies linking morphology to genomic, epigenetic, and environmental factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Congratulations to Kolton and the entire team on this important contribution to the field. The full open-access paper is now available on the <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.psj.2026.106504\">Poultry Science webpage<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We are excited to announce the publication of a new paper from our lab exploring the temporal dynamics of sperm morphology in broiler breeder males. The study, led by Kolton Witherspoon as first author, provides important insights into how sperm quality changes over the production cycle and what this means for fertility management in commercial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,4,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chicken","category-manuscripts","category-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1396,"href":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions\/1396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giriathrey.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}