Abstract
Control of sperm quality after commercial freezing/thawing of bull semen is still restricted to the subjective assessment of sperm motility, despite its low correlation to fertility (Söderquist et al. 1991, Kjaestad et al. 1993). Although no single in vitro method has yet been designed to predict the fertilizing ability of a given semen sample, the quantitation of viable spermatozoa (with intact plasma and acrosome membranes, and metabolically active) seems to be most promising (Woelders et al. 1991). The present report describes the use of a bioluminiscence technique to determine ATP-levels and a novel supravital stain (using fluorescent dyes) to assess the amount of viable spermatozoa in frozen/thawed semen from 3 A.I. dairy bulls with significantly different motility after thawing.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are indebted to Annika Rikberg and Karin Selin-Wretling for technical assistance. Dr. Januskauskas is holder of a scholarship from the Royal Academy of Forestry and Agriculture (KSLA). This work received financial support from the Stiftelsen Lantbruksforskning, Sweden.
References
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