Fertility is an important economic trait in livestock and poultry that relies on the genetic merit of both males and females. Despite the importance of the paternal contribution to reproductive success, the preponderance of research has focused on the female. The advent of the ‘omics’ era has stimulated the search for accurate predictors of male fertility, which is especially important for animal production where the fertility status of males most often is not known until sexual maturity is reached, and methods to assess semen quality often are not correlated with fertility, especially subfertile males. Identification and validation of biomarkers, such as genes, transcripts, proteins, metabolites, that are associated with fertility phenotypes has great potential to improve the reproductive efficiency of livestock and poultry. Recent findings of candidate genes and biomarkers primarily associated with semen and sperm are highlighted for the major agricultural species.

生育力是家畜和家禽的重要经济性状，它依赖于雄性和雌性的遗传优势。尽管父亲对生殖成功的贡献很重要，但研究的优势集中在女性身上。“组学”时代的到来刺激了对雄性生育能力的准确预测因子的探索，这对于动物生产尤其重要，因为在达到性成熟之前，雄性的生育状态通常是未知的，并且评估精液质量的方法经常与生育能力无关，尤其是生育能力低下的男性。鉴定和验证与生育表型相关的生物标志物，例如基因、转录本、蛋白质、代谢物，在提高畜禽繁殖效率方面具有巨大潜力。