Reproduction in Domestic Animals - Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias

16 t h International Congress on Animal Reproduction
104 Poster Abstracts
area and disturbed uterine hemodynamics at the mesometrial
attachment.
P229
Effect of protein source in stallion semen diluent on the
motility, acrosome integrity and morphology of sperm
Gibb, Z 1 *, Morris, L 2 , Grupen, C 1 , Evans, G 1 , Maxwell, C 1
1Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;
2EquiBreed Ltd., Cambridge, New Zealand
Introduction Most stallion semen diluents utilise skim milk to
provide protective proteins for sperm. However, milk based diluents
impede sperm motility assessments and reduce the effectiveness of
staining procedures used to process sperm for flow cytometric sorting.
In addition, the variable protein levels and the presence of
unidentified toxic products in milk may vary results. Therefore, a
more precisely defined diluent protein composition is needed. The
aim of this study was to ascertain the optimal source of protein in a
traditional stallion semen diluent, Kenney’s Modified Tyrode’s 1
(KMT) Medium, for handling and processing stallion sperm prior to
flow cytometric sex-sorting.
Methods and Materials Two ejaculates were collected from each of
three Standardbred stallions. Each ejaculate was diluted in traditional
KMT that contained skim milk or KMT without skim milk and
supplemented with 0.25mg per ml of either bovine serum albumin
(BSA), β-lactoglobulin, glycine or fetal bovine serum (FBS). Diluted
semen samples were incubated at 34ºC or 5ºC. Subjective motility,
acrosome integrity and morphology were assessed over a 24 h period.
Results and Discussion After incubation for 3 h at 34ºC, there was no
significant difference between the diluents for total motility,
progressive motility or acrosome status of spermatozoa. After
incubation for 24 h at 34ºC in KMT, there was a lower incidence of
sperm tail abnormalities compared with the other diluents (9.3 vs.
23.2 – 24.5 %; p