Avaliação do comportamento sexual em touros Nelore: Comparação entre os testes da libido em curral e do comportamento sexual a campo

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine the efficiency of the libido test in corral compared to the test performed at field and to relate them to the gestation rate observed in a breeding season of 120 days. Thirteen Nelore bulls able to reproduce were submitted to the libido test in corral for 3 hours and evaluated by scores every five minutes. Nine of them were submitted to evaluation at field using a bull:cow proportion equal to 1:33. The gestation was diagnosed every 21 days through ultrasonographic evaluation. During the test in corral, the classification scores increased as the testing time increased, but no bull accomplished complete service in the first 10 minutes of the test. A very good bull obtained 84.80% for pregnancy rate, but other questionable bulls obtained 86.67 and 96.55% at the end of the breeding season. Correlations estimates among physical and morphologic characteristics of the semen were close to zero or null. The main physiologic indicators of the bull sexual behavior were: smelling or licking the female body, smelling or licking the vulva, followed or not by the Flehmen reflex. The results suggested 30 minutes of observation as the most efficient time to evaluate the libido test in corral. The libido test at field during daytime was not effective probably because of the sexual behavior of some bulls at night. © 2007 Sociedade Brasileira de Zootecnia.