Comparison of two staining techniques on the manual and automated canine sperm morphology analysis

Paulina Surmacz, Anna Niwinska, Ewa Kautz, Slawomir Gizinski, Ricardo Faundez

Department of Large Animal Diseases with Clinic, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences WULS – SGGW, Warsaw, Poland; Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland; InviMed Fertility Clinics, Warsaw, Poland

Abstract: Detailed and direct analysis of semen, including sperm morphology, enables a diagnosis of male fertility. This study aimed to describe an economical and verified protocol for canine spermiograms and compare the effectiveness of Sperm Stain® and Sperm Blue® (Microptic, Spain) in veterinary practice. Sperm assessment was conducted manually, using a standard optical microscope, and via computerized semen analysis using the SCA® CASA (Sperm Class Analyzer® CASA System-MICROPTIC, Spain). This study showed that Sperm Blue® is a better solution for computerized sperm quality analysis of healthy dogs. At the same time, Sperm Stain® turned out to be more helpful in identifying specific morphological defects of sperm. Automated canine sperm morphology analysis worked better with Sperm Blue stain, but Sperm Stain simplified manual evaluation of various organelles’ defects. Standard, manual examination is more error-prone for an inexperienced andrology technician, but it seems to be still a gold standard technique for canine sperm assessment.

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Reprod Dom Anim. 2022;00:1–7. / https://doi.org/10.1111/rda.14100
Received: 11 January 2022 | Accepted: 18 February 2022 | First published: 24 February 2022