Interactions Among Different Devices and Electrical Stimulus on the Electroejaculation of Captive Agoutis (Dasyprocta leporina)

Abstract

The interactions among different electroejaculation devices associated with serial or continuous stimuli were investigated to improve the efficiency of the electroejaculation for semen collection in agoutis. Ten sexually matured male Dasyprocta leporina were restrained by the intramuscular administration of xylazine-ketamine association. Each individual was randomly subjected to four electroejaculation protocols, by combining two devices (one presenting longitudinal electrodes emitting square waves and other presenting ring electrodes emitting sine waves) and two electrical stimuli protocols (serial or continuous). A total of 40 attempts for electroejaculation were conducted in agoutis, being 10 per treatment. The most efficient treatment in providing ejaculates containing sperm (p < 0.05) was that using and electroejaculator connected to a probe with ring electrodes and associated with serial stimuli (4/7; 57%). In spite of semen parameters obtained by sine waves were adequate for using the samples for assisted reproduction, higher values for sperm motility and functional membrane integrity were obtained in the use of the square wave, independently of the electric stimulation protocol used (p < 0.05). In conclusion, we verified that the use of a device presenting a probe with ring electrodes and emitting sine waves, associated with a serial stimuli protocol, improves the efficiency for semen obtaining by electroejaculation in adults D. leporina.

Reproduction in agouti (Dasyprocta spp.): A review of reproductive physiology for developing assisted reproductive techniques

“…Additionally, Castelo et al (2016) demonstrated the interaction between different types of electrical stimuli, as sine or quadratic waves, and electroejaculation using ring or strip electrode apparatus with better results than those reported by Mollineau et al (2008Mollineau et al ( , 2010. The authors obtained 70% of ejaculates, with 57% of ejaculates containing spermatozoa, when using the protocol with the ring electrode associated with sinusoidal stimuli (Castelo et al, 2016). However, Martinez et al (2013) obtained better results using four brown agouti (D. azarae) and obtained 100% success in semen collection.…”

“…In a subsequent study using the same electroejaculation protocol, but starting at 2 V, an efficiency of 40% of ejaculates containing spermatozoa was obtained (Mollineau et al, 2010a). Additionally, Castelo et al (2016) demonstrated the interaction between different types of electrical stimuli, as sine or quadratic waves, and electroejaculation using ring or strip electrode apparatus with better results than those reported by Mollineau et al (2008Mollineau et al ( , 2010. The authors obtained 70% of ejaculates, with 57% of ejaculates containing spermatozoa, when using the protocol with the ring electrode associated with sinusoidal stimuli (Castelo et al, 2016).…”

“…Application of ART as an initial step for developing methods for sperm recovery is required. Of late, methods for obtaining spermatozoa by retrograde epididymal washing (Ferraz et al, 2011;Silva et al, 2011Silva et al, , 2012Castelo et al, 2015) or electroejaculation (Mollineau et al, 2008;Martinez et al, 2013;Castelo et al, 2016) have been described for agouti.…”

“…Subsequently, the technique was applied in the same species of agouti by Silva et al (2011Silva et al ( , 2012, in which a volume of 300 ± 2 μL was recovered with a concentration of 1.4 ± 0.3 × 10 9 spermatozoa/mL. Using the same method in D. leporina, Castelo et al (2015) were able to recover a total volume of 1.65 ± 0.22 mL with a concentration of 1.04 ± 0.2 × 10 6 spermatozoa/mL. Electroejaculation is another efficient way of obtaining sperm, primarily because the death of the animal is not necessary.…”

Natural Habitat, Housing, and Restraint of Six Selected Neotropical Animals in Trinidad and Tobago with the Potential for Domestication

“…Physical restraint was done using hand nets. ey were then anaesthetized using ketamine (dose rate of 35 mg/kg) and xylazine (dose rate of 5 mg/kg) intramuscularly and maintained using quarter dose top-ups when they were coming out of the anaesthesia [24]. Anaesthetic drugs such as ketamine hydrochloride (dose rate of 35 mg/kg) and xylazine hydrochloride (Bomazine 2%, 35 mg/ml) were used at a dose rate of 5 mg/kg to sedate animals [25] ( Table 3).…”