Physiological Characteristics of Electro-Ejaculated Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) Semen

Abstract

In the present experiment, 11 heads of giant male pandas (Ailuropda melanoleuca) aged 6 to 20 years old males were used. During breeding season, semen collection was done with an interval of more than 7 days by means of an appropriate semen collection method and the collected semen was used for both artificial insemination and cryogenic storage. In freshly collected and stored semen, spermatozoa survived more than 130 h (>5days) at 0〜4℃, while spermatozoa frozen for 1 to 6 years in liquid nitrogen (-196℃) maintained their motility for only 400 min (>6h) when incubated at 37℃. These two types of semen samples also lead to the production of offspring following artificial insemination. The giant panda spermatozoa were shown to have more than 30% of abnormal spermatozoa, higher than spermatozoa of other cat family. This brought about lower fertility after natural copulation or artificial insemination.