This experiment was conducted to examine motility and fertility of goat spermatozoa which were frozen slowly in dry ice and alcohol and rapidly in liquid nitrogen vapor using ampoule and plastic straw. Semen was collected from 4 Sannen goats. The semen was diluted at the rate of 1 part of the semen to 4 of the first diluent ECSD (A) at 2527°C, which did not contain glycerol. The diluted semen was cooled to 4°C over a period of 1 hour and was kept for 23 hours at 4°C. The semen was rediluted at the rate of 1 part of the semen to 03 of the first diluent at 4°C. Then, the second diluent ECSD (B) containing 14% of glycerol (v/v) was added to the first or the rediluted semen at the rate of 1:1 four times at 15 minutes interval. The diluted semen was allowed to equilibrate at 4°C for 618 hours before freezing. Each 0.5 ml of the equilibrated semen was placed into the ampoule or plastic straw. One of the equilibrated semen samples was cooled gradually from 5°C to-15°C at 12°C per minute, -15°C to-30°C at 45°C per minute and -30°C to -75°C at 34°C per minute with dry ice and alcohol, then stored at-79°C. The other samples were cooled rapidly from 5°C to-100°C in liquid nitrogen vapor for 4 to 5 minutes and stored at-196°C in liquid nitrogen. The motility of spermatozoa before and after freezing was examined. The fertility of frozen spermatozoa was also tested. Insemination was performed by the deep cervical method with forceps and a pipette specially designed for goats and sheep. Volume of the semen was 0.5 ml per insemination, and the dilution rate was 10 to 30 times. The semen was thawed before insemination at 20°C.
The results obtained are as follows.
1. The optimum amount of egg yolk in the diluent was 20% (3% sodium citrate solution 4: egg yolk 1), and that of glycerol in the second diluent was 14 to 16%.
2. Effect of different glycerol equilibration time, 1.5 to 48 hours on motility of frozen sperma-tozoa was examined. The semen equilibrated for 6 to 18 hours gave good motility and high percentage of motile spermatozoa after thawing.
3. Good motility and high percentage of motile spermatozoa after thawing were obtained when a specially prepared diluent ECSD was used for goat semen. When ethylene glycol or propylene glycol was used instead of glycerol, the viability of spermatozoa decreased markdly.
4. Motility of spermatozoa was best when the semen was thawed at 30°C-40°C. However, in conception trials, satisfactory results were obtained with semen thawed at 20°C.
5. Effect of different dilution rates, 10 to 40 times, on motility of frozen spermatozoa was examined. Motility of spermatoza after thawing was generally good when it was diluted 10 to 20 times, but it was gradually decreased when it was diluted more than 20 times.
6. The dilution rate of the semen used for conception trials was 10 to 30 times. The frozen goat semen was stored at-79°C or-196°C for 1 to 1, 022 days. Each 0.5 ml of the semen was insemi-nated by deep-cervical method using forceps and a specially devised insemination pipette. All insemi-nations resulted in good conception rate, 71.9% for 114 goats with the semen from 15 male goats stored for 11, 022 days.
The longest record of storage of frozen goat semen with satisfactory conception was 1, 022 days. The conception rate from the field conception trials with the semen from 5 other male goats stored for not longer than 2 months was 81.8% (154/190) after single insemination.
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