Evaluation of stallion sperm concentration by two different methods and its influence on sperm motility assessment

Abstract

Received: 2020-12-18 | Accepted: 2021-05-03 | Available online: 2021-12-31

https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2021.24.04.293-296

The aim of this study was to compare two methods for determining the concentration of sperm in stallion ejaculate and to evaluate the influence of different levels of concentration on the determination of sperm motility using an objective method. The total number of evaluated samples was 123. For the experiment, 14 stallions of different breeds housed in the Tlumačov Provincial Stud Farm were used. Sperm concentration was assessed by the hemocytometric method using a Bürker chamber and the automatic method using the Sperm Class Analyzer®. The SCA system was used to evaluate sperm motility. The samples were divided into 6 groups with sperm concentrations of 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300·10⁶ sperm ml^-1. The results were statistically evaluated by Tukey’s HSD test. There were statistically significant differences in the determination of sperm concentrations between the hemocytometric method and the SCA system in samples with concentration exceeding 100·10⁶ sperm  ml^-1. Sperm motility increased in samples with higher concentration, however the effect of sperm concentration on motility parameters has not been statistically significant. The results of this study indicate that samples with sperm concentration higher than 100·10⁶ sperm ml^-1 reduce the accuracy of the SCA system evaluation and these samples need to be diluted to concentration ≤100·10⁶ sperm ml^-1 for more accurate evaluation.

Keywords: sperm concentration, sperm motility, hemocytometer, SCA

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