Assessment of cryopreserved sperm motility from colombian creole stallions by Sperm Class Analyzer

Giovanni Restrepo, Daniel Ocampo, Andrés Velásquez

Department of Agrarian Sciences, Politécnico Colombiano Jaime Isaza Cadavid, Colombia.

Reproduction plays a key role in the genetic improvement in horses. Equine semen cryopreservation is a complementary technique to reproductive biotechnology processes. However, only 40% of the horses produce semen that can be cryopreserved, with a high variability in fertility. The reliability of the methods of semen evaluation is important to determine their fertility potential, but the conventional analysis by microscopic evaluation has not been very effective in this regard. Computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA) provides an objective measurement of sperm motility. This study aimed to compare the evaluation of equine sperm motility through conventional and SCA® (CASA) methods. Semen of three
horses of the Colombian creole breed (three ejaculates each) was frozen in extender (4% egg yolk, 5% dimethylformamide). Thawed sperm motility was conventionally determined by phase contrast microscopy and by SCA ® software. For statistical analysis was fitted a generalized linear model (GLM) and was determined the association between variables using correlation and regression analysis. It was found an average of total motility of 54.3% ± 10.1 % and 61.8% ± 13.9% for conventional and SCA® evaluation, respectively. No significant difference was observed between analysis methods. We conclude that equine semen analysis by conventional method and SCA® system is comparable to analyze the motility of criopreserved equine semen.

Rev. U.D.CA Act. & Div. Cient. 16(2):445-450