MICROBIOLOGICAL INDICES OF MARAL SEMEN TAKEN IN ANTLER CUTTING BOX AFTER CRYOPRESERVATION
Artificial insemination is one of the ways to increase animal productivity. The lack of high-quality semen bank in the velvet antler deer industry prevents from performing artificial insemination in marals and thus leads to inefficient management of the industry in the field of breeding work. Artificial insemination may expand the selection-breeding work in the maral breeding industry through new breeds, types and groups of animals with high productivity and genetic potential. To solve this problem, high-quality semen from maral stags should be obtained and preserved. To implement artificial insemination in maral industry, at the first stage, it is necessary to obtain semen from highly productive maral stags, to evaluate it, dilute it and perform the cryopreservation for the purpose of creating a semen bank. Semen was obtained by urethral method by means of Voloskov electro-ejaculator. The semen was diluted by lactose-glycerin-egg yolk medium. The studied semen samples were pure regarding to campilobacteriosis, a trichomoniasis, Pseudomonas Aureginosa, anaerobic microflora and Coliform bacteria. It was found that after cryopreservation of diluted maral semen, the general bacterial content ranged from 10<sup>3</sup> to 10<sup>5</sup>, and the growth of nonpathogenic fungi of the genus Penicillium sp. was observed - from 2 to 4 colonies. The use of the obtained semen for artificial insemination is not admissible; to reduce the bacterial content, sanitizers should be added to the extender; maral prepuce should be properly sanitized.