March 1955]
ABSTRACTS
71
Results obtained with new dilutors for bull sperm. ACHNELT, E. (1953) Priifung
sergebnisse neuer Verdiinnumgs fliissigkeiten fiir das Bullen sperma Disch. tierarztl. Wschr
Beil. Fort-pfl. ie. Bes. d. Haust. 52-55
R ESULTS are reported of in Vitro trials carried out with certain new
dilutors for bull semen developed by German firms. The dilutors were
those of E. Merck of Darmstadt, of Behring werke of Marburg—Lahm, of Reidel
de Haem of Sielze near Hannover and of Mack of Illertissen, Bayern. Merck's
and Mack's dilutors are marketed under the trade names of 'Dilopten ' and ' Sper-
masol' respectively, while the other dilutors did not have any special names. Dilo-
pten was tried without yolk and with 10 per cent egg-yolk, Behring's dilutor was
tried without yolk and with 10 per cent and 20 per cent egg-yolk. In the case of
other dilutors 20 per cent egg-yolk was mixed before use. Spermasol and sodium
citrate dilutors (both with 20 per cent egg-yolk) acted as controls. Two dilution
rates, namely 1 : 4 and 1 : 8 were employed.
It was observed that better results were obtained when 1 : 4 instead of 1 : 8
dilution rate was used. Reidel de Haen's dilutor+20 egg-yolk gave the best results—
70 per cent of the live sperm showing progressive movement after 48 hours, 60 per
cent after 94 hours and 25 per cent after 154 hours of storage. Live sperm were seen
upto 431 hour of preservation. Yolk-spermasol and yolk-dilopten came next in
order of merit, the relative superiority of the three dilutors, it is suggested, could
only be determined through more extensive trials. All the yolk-free dilutors tested
proved inferior showing that egg-yolk cannot be omitted from the present dilutors of
bull semem. (S.S.P.)
Comparative and complementary effects of heat treating and oiling shell eggs on
their keeping quality. BOSE, S. AND STEWART, G.F. (1848) Poultry Sci. XXVII, 228
E XPERIMENTS have been carried out to study the comparative and comple-
mentary effects of heat treatment and oiling on shell eggs stored at
77°F and 50 per cent relative humidity for 14 days. The results showed that heat
treatment at 130°F. of five-hour old eggs did not have any effect on internal quality
as measured by albumen and yolk indices, whereas four-day old eggs showed definite
improvement in albumen quality and the improvement was roughly linear with
heating time. The maximum benefit was obtained when eggs were heat treated for
40 minutes or more at 130°F. The effect was greater on albumen than on yolk
quality. The results with heat treated and oiled (carnation oil) eggs showed consi-
derable complementary effect on the keeping quality of eggs. The oiling also
helped in lowering the pH value of eggs by preventing the escape of naturally occur-
ring CO 2 present in them. No such complementary effect was, however, noticed in the
four-day old egg as probably insufficient CO 2 was present in them to give protective
effect to the albumen quality. With regard to yolk quality, complementary effect
was noticed both with regard to five-hour old and four-day old eggs as even small
amounts of CO 2 have been found sufficient to retain the yolk quality. The percentage
increase of outer thin white during storage was more in the oiled eggs than in the
unoiled eggs. With regard to four-day old eggs, there was no increase in the outer thin
percentage on heat treatment and those that received heat treatment for 20 minutes
or more maintained their initial value during storage. On the whole, it was found