2023 Volume 60 Issue 3 Pages 99-108
It has been pointed out that rubber gloves have an adverse effect on the properties of porcine sperm ; nevertheless, rubber gloves are still often used when collecting porcine semen. Rubber products such as gloves are made up of many components, and these different components may have different effects on sperm viability. In this study, we compared the effects of different disposable glove materials, including those made of rubber, on the quality of spermatozoa obtained from standard pig varieties in Japan. In Experiment 1, the semen was co-cultured with pieces of natural rubber, nitrile rubber, nitrile rubber without vulcanization accelerator, or polyethylene gloves. Sperm motility was significantly reduced in cultures with natural rubber, nitrile rubber, and nitrile rubber without vulcanization accelerator. By contrast, semen quality in cultures with polyethylene did not differ from that of control cultures, which did not contain any glove material. The effects of co-culture with glove material on acrosome integrity were less than those on sperm motility, although these effects increased with the time of co-culture in culture with nitrile rubber and nitrile rubber without vulcanization accelerator. In Experiment 2, nitrile rubber was thoroughly washed with water or soap before co-culturing with semen. Washing reduced the harmful effects on sperm, but did not restore motility and normal acrosome levels to those in control cultures without glove material. In Experiment 3, semen was co-cultured with four types of polyethylene gloves. Motility and acrosomal normality were slightly reduced in coculture with one type of polyethylene glove, but the remaining three types showed no difference from controls. Our results indicate that gloves composed of natural rubber or nitrile rubber, including those without vulcanization accelerator, have a significantly deleterious effect on the characteristics of pig semen, particularly motility ; this harmful effect was not obviated sufficiently by washing the gloves. On the other hand, most polyethylene gloves have been found to be very safe. Therefore, when collecting and processing semen, the use of rubber products should be avoided and other materials such as polyethylene should be used.
