The Journal of Reproduction and Development Supplement

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Cryo-banked semen is playing vital role in the advancement of modern dairy production. Success in semen cryopreservation is still debatable because several factors are accountable for it. Generally, the process of freezing-thawing is believed to cause 50% decline in sperm quality. Cholesterol enrichment of sperm plasma membrane using cholesterol-loaded cyclodextrin (CLC) has been proved beneficial for sperm cryo-survival of several mammalian species. This study was aimed to minimize the decline in sperm quality parameters of buffalo during the cryopreservation process through pre-freezing treatment with CLC. Semen was collected from three Nili-Ravi buffaloes, pooled. After initial evaluation the sample was divided into two aliquots (one aliquot as control and other as CLC treated with CLC). Both aliquots were diluted in Tris citric acid buffer with second aliquot additionally treated with 2mg CLC/120x10⁶ sperm. After 15 min incubation, both samples were diluted in Tris based diluents and frozen with standard procedure. Decline of sperm motility, viability, plasma membrane integrity (PMI), normal apical ridge (NAR) from fresh to post-thaw were assessed. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were found in decline of all sperm quality parameters between control (C) and CLC treated (T) samples. The decline from fresh to post-thaw in motility (43.34±3.33 vs. 25.97± 3.26), viability (31.90±2.20 vs. 19.64±2.36), PMI (32.01±2.46 vs. 17.26±1.19) and NAR (35.36±4.17 vs. 26.90±1.12) were found higher (P < 0.05) between C vs. T, respectively. It is concluded that cholesterol addition to sperm membrane can reduce the deleterious effect of cryopreservation in buffalo bull sperm.

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Mating between related animal was unavoidable to occur in captive animal that had limited population or low numbers of founders. This situation affects genetic variation and reproductive success in both male and female. To determine these effects in 7 captive tigers and 7 fishing cats, semen was collected and DNA evaluation for 17 microsatellite markers was analyzed. Genetic variation as defined by degree of genomic DNA heterozygosity ranged from 0.06–0.29 in tigers and 0.29–0.47 in fishing cats. Inbreeding depression that affected reproductive success in male was determined by sperm motility and morphology. Progressive motility ranged from 10–90 % in tigers and 85–90 % in fishing cats. Percentage of normal sperm varied between 48–86 % in tigers and 61–93.50 % in fishing cats. Most of sperm abnormality was due to primary defect. Average heterozygosity in fishing cats was higher than in tigers; however, there was no relationship with sperm motility and normal sperm morphology across individual and across population in both species.
Keywords: heterozygosity, sperm motility, sperm morphology, tiger, fishing cat

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