by sperm motility, viability and morphology, was obtained in 
January and February; the poorest quality occurred during the 
summer, May to August. The best semen quantity, as measured by 
semen volume, sperm concentration and number of sperm produced, 
occurred during the summer, and lowest quantity was obtained 
during the winter. They expressed the idea that biological 
factors were mainly responsible for semen production, whereas 
technological factors were mainly involved in semen quality. 
Thus, their results could be explained on this basis <= poor 
semen quality was obtained during the Egyptian summer when exe 
treme weather conditions probably had very adverse effects on 
the semen samples obtained. 
Somewhat similar studies have been conducted by Care 
son, Lorenz and Asmundson (1955) in studying Broad Breasted 
Bronze turkeys. They found semen production to fluctuate sea- 
sonally, maximum production occurring from February to early 
summer. During the late summer and fall, most males ceased pro- 
cenheepe sperm although some continued to produce semen at a low 
level. 
Kosin and coeworkers have attempted to separate out 
one of the components of "season" and have published a series. 
of papers dealing with the effects of temperature per se on 
reproductive ability of Broad Breasted Bronze turkey males. 
In their first study (Kosin, Mitchell, and Burrows, 
1952), males were placed in different environments during the 
pre=breeding season. One group was held in an outdoor pen, and 
the other in an insulated house held at 65 degrees F., both bee 
ing subjected to the same amount of artificial light. In the 
Subsequent twelveeweek breeding season, it was found that the 
“prem-heated" males gave consistently higher fertility than 
those subjected to natural low-winter temperatures, 
In the next phase of the experiments (Kosin, Mitchell, 
and St. Pierre, 1955), temperature of the males was artificially 
altered late in the breeding season, that 1s, between May and 
July. Males were removed from the outdoor breeding pens at 
9 aem., One group being placed in an insulated house held at 
65 degrees F., the other being held in an outdoor pen out of 
sight of the females. Both groups were returned daily to the 
breeding yards at 4 pem. It was found that this daily cooling 
temporarily halted the seasonal downward trend in fertility. 
They demonstrated that during the day the males in the insulated 
house has lower body temperatures than those in the outdoor pen. 
Semen quality studies of males held under the two en- 
vironments, controlled and outdoor temperature, were reported 
by Law and Kosin (1958). In this work, 80 males were subjected 
to each environment. Semen was collected every two weeks from 
a group of males under each treatment for a period of two years. 
During the first year, two males of each group were sacrificed 
every two weeks for histological study of the reproductive 
6 
