Pregnancies Following Artificial Insemination with Spermatozoa from Problem Stallion Ejaculates Processed by Single Layer Centrifugation with Androcoll‐E

Abstract

Contents Some stallions produce ejaculates of low quality and/or low fertility when used for artificial insemination (AI). The purpose of these five case studies was to use Single Layer Centrifugation (SLC) to select the best spermatozoa from ‘problem’ ejaculates for subsequent use in AI. Sperm quality, in terms of motility, morphology and chromatin integrity, was improved in the SLC‐selected samples compared to the corresponding uncentrifuged samples, with the exception of one stallion thought to have ampullary stasis. In this stallion, neither the incidence of spermatozoa with detached heads nor the proportion of damaged chromatin was decreased by SLC, in contrast to previous results. Pregnancies were obtained after using SLC‐selected spermatozoa from the five stallions for AI, indicating that the spermatozoa were functional after SLC. Overall, the results suggest that SLC may be useful when preparing AI doses from some ‘problem’ ejaculates.

Effect of single layer centrifugation using Androcoll-E-Large on the sperm quality parameters of cooled-stored donkey semen doses

“…Since previous studies have obtained moderate pregnancy rates (45%) in jennies inseminated with unselected cooled semen (Vidament et al, 2009), SLC could be used to try to increase this percentage. The relationship between SLC-selected semen and fertility has been reported before in stallions (Morrell et al, 2011b). However, Cool-stored donkey semen doses processed by SLC no experiences have been performed in donkeys.…”

“…However, to our knowledge, only preliminary results of the use of SLC to improve sperm motility in cooled donkey semen samples have been published by our research group (Ortiz et al, 2012). Despite common belief, the transfer of knowledge and procedures from horses to donkeys often achieves poor results (Contri et al, 2010b); so additional studies should be performed to evaluate if SLC previously used with great success in stallion semen (Morrell et al, 2011b) is suitable for donkey semen samples as well.…”

Short communication. Stallion sperm quality after combined ejaculate fractionation and colloidal centrifugation

“…Given the adverse effects of seminal plasma on stallion sperm preservation, application of colloidal centrifugation of sperm is gaining increasing popularity as a method of processing stallion semen (Morrell et al, 2010a;Mari et al, 2011;Morrell, 2011;Edmond et al, 2012). It has been described as an easy to use technique, requiring little equipment and consumables, although the cost per sample is currently the highest among the different sperm selection methods (Morrell, 2012).…”

Biomimetics in Action: Practical Applications of Single Layer Centrifugation for equine breeding

“…Sperm doses from some "problem" stallions showed an improvement in fertility when SLC-selection was used, for example, pregnancy rates of <20% without SLC can rise to >50% after SLC, depending on the nature of the problem [21,22], although the number of mares inseminated was small. The problems in four of the five stallions reported in the latter study were large volume with low sperm concentration with or without poor motility (two stallions), poor morphology (1 stallion), and one case of presumed ampullary stasis.…”

“…Samples from four such stallions have been processed by SLC and used for AI: one was used for AI immediately after processing [22]; the other three were cooled and transported to another stud for AI after 24h. All four mares conceived, indicating that stallion spermatozoa with a low tolerance to cooling in the presence of some seminal plasma benefit from its complete removal.…”