Effect of extender-additives on motility, viability and acrosomal integrity of triplebred (HF x Jersey x Kankrej) bulls' spermatozoa during refrigeration preservation (5 degree Celcius)

Abstract

Semen ejaculates (36) of 4 mature triplebred (HF 25% x Jersey 25% x Kankrej 50%) bulls were used to study the effect of extender-additives, viz. cysteine HC1 (0.1%) and EDTA (0.1%) in tris fructose yolk glycerol diluent using split-sample technique (1 : 10 dilution) on motility, viability and acrosome integrity of spermatozoa during refrigeration preservation. The data analyzed using 3-factors factorial completely randomized design showed that there were significant differences in percentages of motile and live sperms and intact acrosomes between bulls, between storage periods and between additives. Among all the 2-and 3-way interactions of bulls, periods and additives studied, only bull x additive interaction for live sperm, and bull x period and additive x period interactions for acrosomal integrity were significant. The overall pooled mean values of progressively motile sperms (irrespective of diluent additives) at 0, 48 and 96 h of refrigeration storage of semen were 81.07±0.48, 72.41±0.61 and 63.47±0.69%, respectively. The pooled values for live sperm at 0 and 48 h of storage were 88.89±0.32 and 73.22±0.37%, and intact acrosome 92.33±0.19 and 86.82±0.21%, respectively. There was significant decline in motile and live sperm and intact acrosome with advancing storage time, overall and in different extender-additives. The mean percentages of progressively motile spermatozoa at initial and 24 and 48 h of refrigeration of semen were significantly higher with inclusion of EDTA and cysteine than in control tris diluent. The values of live sperm and intact acrosome also followed the same trend. The trend observed for the effect of storage intervals and additives was identical in the semen of all 4 bulls for motile and live sperm and intact acrosome. In general, significantly higher sustenance of motility, viability and acrosome integrity at all stages of refrigeration storage of semen in the presence of EDTA and cysteine hydrochloride (EDTA being superior than cysteine) as compared to control tris diluent, suggest that these additives can be routinely used in semen diluent to harvest better results even after 48 h of refrigeration storage.