1 GOAT SEMEN COLLECTION AND PROCESSING BY DR. LOUIS ...

combination to evaluate an ejaculate. As indicated previously, the combined use of
computerized semen analysis systems and zona-free hamster ova penetration assays may
prove to be a powerful set of tools but the costs are currently prohibitive for most
commercial production facilities. The following is a list of the more common ejaculate
characteristics used for evaluation.
1. Concentration (millions of sperm/ml)
2. Progressive motility (%)
3. Acrosome morphology (% intact acrosomes)
4. Volume (ml)
5. Tail morphology (% abnormal)
6. Mass motility (%)
7. Ejaculate color
8 pH
Why do we bother to perform these evaluations? Even though fertility cannot be
accurately predicted, the lack of it can. Deviations from the norm is usually a good
predictor of low fertility. Our objective in evaluating semen quality should be to identify
those samples that have traits pointing to the probability of below normal fertility and
therefore discard them. An extension of this thought is to discard those males that
continuously produce poor quality semen.
In general, semen quality can be divided into two categories: a) the number of sperm
cells harvested and b) the viability of the collected sperm cells. Quantification of sperm
cells can be readily determined with the proper equipment and training. It is simply the
product of the ejaculate volume and the sperm concentration.
27