Ambrose S. Jubara, Kamal A. K, Emmanuel P. Lita, Jaja L. K

ABSTRACT

Ram spermatozoa are very sensitive to the effect of dilution rate during adjustment for artificial insemination dose for sheep. The objectives of this study was to determine the extent of protection that will be offered by the seminal plasma to ram sperm when added to the cryopreservation diluent, following low and high dilution rates before cooling semen to 5° C and freezing. In experiment 1, pre-cooling dilution with seminal plasma extender (group B) at low dilution rate was found to significantly (p<0.05) preserve the post-thaw percentage of acrosomal damaged sperm (19.6 ±0.52%) and maintained acceptable post-thaw sperm progressive motility (44.5 ± 1.57%) compared to milk base diluted semen in group A (53.0 ±1.11%) progressive motility and 41.0 ±1.90% acrosome damaged sperm). In experiment 2, following high dilution rate of semen, seminal plasma treated subgroups C2 and D1, D2 were also found to significantly (p<0.05) reduce percentage of acrosomal damaged sperm (20.6± 0.99, 23.3 ±1.15 and 21.5 ±1.12% respectively) and maintained acceptable sperm progressive motility rates (47.5 ±0.01, 47.0 ±1.70 and 48.5± 1.67 % respectively). The study concluded that, addition of ram seminal plasma to ram semen freezing diluent or its pre-freezing supplementation, will preserve sperm acrosome membranes and maintains acceptable progressive motility rates both at high and low dilution rates.

Keywords: Ram Semen, Seminal Plasma, Dilution Rate, Acrosome Integrity

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