Comparative performance of biociphos and egg yolk based extenders for buffalo semen cryopreservation*

Abstract

A study was conducted on 36 ejaculates from 6 Murrah buffalo bulls to compare the performance of biociphos extender with traditional egg yolk based extender. Semen samples were split into 2 parts and performance was evaluated at refrigerated temperature and –196°C. At refrigerated temperature no significant difference was observed for sperm motility, non eosinophilic counts, sperm abnormalities, intact acrosome status and HOST up to 48 h of preservation. However, total plate counts were significantly lower in biociphos than TYE at all durations of preservation. Similarly, no significant differences were observed in all seminal characteristics in pre-freeze and post-thaw semen samples diluted in biociphos and TYE. However, total plate counts (bacterial load) were significantly lower in biociphos as compared to TYE in both pre-freeze and post-thaw stage. Overall the study revealed that biociphos can be used to replace traditional TYE for buffalo semen preservation considering the better visibility in motility assessment and low bacterial load in biociphos as compared to TYE.