Canine and Feline Epididymal Semen—A Plentiful Source of Gametes

Abstract

Canine and feline epididymal semen provide an additional source of gametes to preserve the genetics of valuable breeding dogs and tomcats, especially for those that fail to ejaculate, need castration as a therapy or die unexpectedly. Moreover, since it is quite common to perform castration of non-breeding dogs and cats, the development of a gene bank of epididymal semen collected after castration would greatly contribute to increase the genetic diversity in dogs and cats. Collection and cryopreservation of epididymal semen necessitates a full understanding of the function of the epididymis and of the characteristics of epididymal spermatozoa as opposed to ejaculated semen. During collection of epididymal semen, specific factors may have a negative effect on epididymal semen quality and freezability. Accordingly, the elimination of these triggers could enhance epididymal semen freezability and consequently positively influence post-thaw semen quality and outcome for different ARTs.

What Happens in Male Dogs after Treatment with a 4.7 mg Deslorelin Implant? II. Recovery of Testicular Function after Implant Removal

“…Whereas the occurrence of first sperm was also after 8–12 weeks, following a five-month treatment with 18.5 mg azagly–nafarelin, the return to normospermia was later, namely after 25.6 ± 3.7 weeks [ 13 ]. Interestingly, in dogs, the duration of spermatogenesis is described to be 56–63 days [ 45 , 46 , 47 ], and epididymal sperm maturation takes an average of 10–14 days [ 48 , 49 ], indicating that the restart of spermatogenesis following the abolition of deslorelin treatment is faster for individual spermatozoa, but spermatogenesis in its “full potential” is first restarted after the abolishment of a 4.7 deslorelin SRI after at least one week—coinciding with the recovery of testicular testosterone production.…”

Trends in Small Animal Reproduction: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Literature

“…The recurrence of the keywords indicating the feline species is lower in this area. However, research on biotechnologies in tomcats is very actual and was targeted by multiple reviews of the literature, underlining the interest of researchers for the topic [28,43,44], even if it still considered as a niche subject. In general, reproductive biotechnologies represent an important area of research in small animal reproduction, surpassing research on clinical aspects of reproduction by a factor of two.…”

Age-Dependent Variations in Functional Quality and Proteomic Characteristics of Canine (Canis lupus familiaris) Epididymal Spermatozoa

“…Canine epididymal semen provides an additional source of gametes to preserve the genetics of valuable breeding dogs [ 1 ]. Moreover, the development of a gene bank of epididymal semen would greatly contribute to increasing the genetic diversity in dogs and also in endangered canids [ 1 ].…”

“…Canine epididymal semen provides an additional source of gametes to preserve the genetics of valuable breeding dogs [ 1 ]. Moreover, the development of a gene bank of epididymal semen would greatly contribute to increasing the genetic diversity in dogs and also in endangered canids [ 1 ]. Additionally, the dog already fulfils many of the criteria of a good model of the human epididymis on a molecular level also regarding aging [ 2 , 3 ].…”