The practice of artificial insemination is widely utilized in poultry; and this requires abroad use of semen storage techniques to prevent the reduction of fertilizing ability ofstored semen. The antioxidant activity of palmitoleic acid with in vitro experiments hasbeen shown. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of palmitoleic acid onthe quality of rooster semen stored at 4C. Semen was collected from ten roosters twicea week. Ejaculates with greater than 80% forward spermatozoa motility were pooled andafter dilution semen was enriched with 0 (control), 0.125 (P 0.125), 0.25 (P 0.25), 0.5 (P 0.5)and 1 (P 1) millimolar palmitoleate. Forward spermatozoa progressive motility and via-bility, as well as amounts of malondialdehyde (MDA) and total antioxidant activity (AOA)were evaluated in seminal plasma and spermatozoa at 0, 24 and 48 h of storage. Motil-ity was 78.5 ± 2.21, 77.5 ± 1.04, and 69.5 ± 2.32% at 24 h and 58.66 ± 1.35, 49.33 ± 1.36 and43.00 ± 2.08% at 48 h in P 0.125, P 0.25 and control, respectively (P < 0.02). There were nosignificant differences in amount of MDA in the seminal plasma among groups, while theamounts of MDA in spermatozoa were less in the P 0.125, P 0.25 and P 0.5 groups com-pared to the control group at 24 and 48 h of storage (P < 0.002). Total amounts of AOA inseminal plasma were greater in palmitoleate treatment groups than the control at 24 and48 h (P < 0.01). Moreover, palmitoleate treatment groups had greater values of total AOA inspermatozoa compared to the control group at 24 and 48 h of storage (P < 0.05). In conclu-sion, enrichment of rooster semen with small doses of palmitoleate has beneficial effectson the semen quality during cold storage.

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