view - Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health
view - Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health
view - Department of Reproduction, Obstetrics and Herd Health
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3.4.1. Abstract<br />
CHAPTER 3.4<br />
In this study, two s<strong>of</strong>tware versions <strong>of</strong> the sperm quality analyzer V equine were tested for<br />
analyzing frozen-thawed equine semen. The first version (1.00.43) was poorly repeatable <strong>and</strong> agreed<br />
poorly with CASA. A newer s<strong>of</strong>tware version with improved algorithms (1.00.61) was capable <strong>of</strong><br />
analyzing the total motility in a more acceptable way although further improvements are m<strong>and</strong>atory<br />
before this device could serve as a diagnostic tool.<br />
3.4.2. Introduction<br />
Frozen equine semen is very <strong>of</strong>ten sold by the dose without any guarantee <strong>of</strong> producing a<br />
pregnancy. It is to be preferred to provide the mare owner with some quality assurance when selling<br />
the semen although one realizes sperm quality assessment remains subject for discussion. At least,<br />
subjective estimation <strong>of</strong> sperm motility is inaccurate <strong>and</strong> imprecise particularly if performed by<br />
inexperienced personnel (Davis <strong>and</strong> Katz, 1993). Nevertheless, motility remains one <strong>of</strong> the most<br />
important parameters when determining semen quality (Varner, 2008). Objective analysis using<br />
computer assisted sperm analysis (CASA) has a reputation <strong>of</strong> providing repeatable results that are<br />
however significantly influenced by motility settings (Hoogewijs et al., 2009).<br />
For human <strong>and</strong>rology research an automated device which does not require motility settings,<br />
the sperm quality analyzer (SQA, Medical Electronic Systems, Caesarea, Israel), has been developed<br />
in the 1980s (Bartoov et al., 1981). Recently, other versions <strong>of</strong> the SQA have become available for<br />
veterinary use. One <strong>of</strong> those, the SQA-Ve was especially designed for analyzing equine semen. This<br />
device (version 1.00.43) has been tested previously for analyzing raw <strong>and</strong> extended semen<br />
(Hoogewijs et al., 2010) <strong>and</strong> showed a good repeatability <strong>and</strong> good agreement when assessing<br />
concentration. Motility determined using the SQA-Ve, however, was poorly repeatable with a poor<br />
agreement to the gold st<strong>and</strong>ard. In that study, the device was not tested for its capability to analyze<br />
frozen-thawed semen.<br />
The aims <strong>of</strong> this study were to evaluate the repeatability <strong>of</strong> the SQA-Ve (1.00.43) <strong>and</strong> the<br />
agreement <strong>of</strong> two different SQA-Ve s<strong>of</strong>tware versions (1.00.43 <strong>and</strong> 1.0061) with CASA for the<br />
analysis <strong>of</strong> frozen-thawed equine semen.<br />
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