Mass sperm motility is associated with fertility in sheep

Abstract

The study was to focus on the relationship between wave motion (mass sperm motility, measured by a mass sperm motility score, manually assessed by artificial insemination (AI) center operators) and fertility in male sheep. A dataset of 711,562 artificial inseminations performed in seven breeds by five French AI centers during the 2001-2005 time period was used for the analysis. Factors influencing the outcome of the insemination, which is a binary response observed at lambing of either success (1) or failure (0), were studied using a joint model within each breed and AI center (eight separate analyses). The joint model is a multivariate model where all information related to the female, the male and the insemination process were included to improve the estimation of the factor effects. Results were consistent for all analyses. The male factors affecting AI results were the age of the ram and the mass motility. After correction for the other factors of variation, the lambing rate increased quasi linearly from three to more than ten points with the mass sperm motility score depending on the breed and the AI center. The consistency of the relationship for all breeds indicated that mass sperm motility is predictive of the fertility resulting when sperm are used from a specific ejaculate. Nonetheless, predictability could be improved if an objective measurement of mass sperm motility were available as a substitute for the subjective scoring currently in use in AI centers.

From flagellar undulations to collective motion: predicting the dynamics of sperm suspensions

“…Both this and the many previous results obtained using reduced models suggest that the observed jets and swirls are features of a final turbulence-like state. The presence of this state has been empirically correlated with sample fertility [61]. We have shown that its onset depends on sperm density, and its observation could therefore be serving as an indicator of sperm count, a well-known measure of sample fertility.…”

A Survey on Multisperm Tracking for Sperm Motility Measurement

“…Microscopic examination can be done manually, however it takes a long inspection time to get more objective results because we must observe up to 10 fields of view per examination task [3]. In addition, the manual examination has other shortcomings: depending on the experience of the veterinarian [4], the occurrence of human error [4], subjective [5], [6], intra and inter observer variability [7], [8], and causing exhaustion to the observer. This paper discusses more primarily about the examination of motility.…”

“…This paper discusses more primarily about the examination of motility. Although sperm mass motion has a close relationship with fertility [5], the related papers are not numerous. As for the measurement of motility, in addition to having a significant role in fertility [4], [9], [10], there are many papers discussing it.…”

Calidad del Semen Refrigerado de Carneros Assaf y Blackbelly

“…Entre las razas de ovinos introducidas al país, Assaf y Blackbelly tienen un buen desempeño en productividad y eficiencia (Atto, 2007); no obstante, para establecer programas de poblamiento que consideren el uso de la inseminación artificial, la calidad del semen debe estar adecuadamente evaluada (David et al, 2015 El semen de ovinos Assaf presentan concentraciones entre 1780 y 3990 x 10 6 espermatozoides por mililitro (Epstein, 1985), en tanto que para el semen de carneros Blackbelly, Quispe (1998) reporta 3730 x 10 6 espermatozoides/ml y 1.46 ml de volumen de eyaculado con 83% de motilidad individual, mientras que Guillén (2001) reporta 84.9% de motilidad individual, 3140 x 10 6 de espermatozoides/ml, 0.97 ml de volumen de eyaculado y 6.6-6.8 de pH.…”