The Effect of Season on Spermatozoa Motility, Plasma Membrane and Acrosome Integrity in Fresh and Frozen–Thawed Semen from Xinong Saanen Bucks

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the season of ejaculate collection influences seminal quality parameters of pre- and post-freeze-thawing in Xinong Saanen bucks. Ejaculates were collected from eight bucks throughout the four seasons (spring, summer, autumn and winter) in a 12 months' time period, identified in the Northern Hemisphere. Semen samples were evaluated by the combinations of conventional and Computer-Assisted Sperm Analysis (CASA) when fresh and after frozen-thawed, respectively. The results clearly demonstrated that season of ejaculate collection influenced (p < 0.05) fresh semen quality. Highest semen quality was observed during autumn. On the contrary, undesirable indices (significantly lower, p < 0.05) were observed in winter as compared with the other remaining seasons. CASA has clearly shown the influences of seasonal variations on semen motility parameters. Furthermore, season of ejaculate collection was also found to influence sperm freezability. Semen characteristics after frozen-thawed followed a similar pattern with that of fresh ejaculate except in spring. The results revealed that sperm quality was higher (p < 0.01) in summer and autumn than in spring and winter. In conclusion, seasonal variation influences semen quality in Xinong Saanen bucks. In addition to summer and autumn, fresh ejaculates in spring can also be successfully used for AI. Sperm from ejaculates collected during summer and autumn are more suitable for cryopreservation. Hence, it is possible to increase the efficiency of goat breeding by manipulating the seasonal variations of semen quality for immediate AI and/or cryopreservation.

Seasonal Variations in Semen Parameters of Zulu Rams Preserved at 10°C for 72 H During Breeding and Non-Breeding Season

“…Consequently, the evaluation of the fertilizing potential of a semen sample has been the utmost objective of semen analysis to estimate the fertility results of a future artificial insemination (Del Olmo et al, 2013). High semen volume obtained in the present study during breeding season was expected and in line with numerous studies (Barkawi et al, 2006;Talebi et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2015;Chella et al, 2017;. This is because, testicle volume shrink during non-breeding season and are highly affected by the heat stress (Hedia et al, 2019).…”

“…Moreover, (Al-Anazi et al, 2017), reported that semen pH in Naimi and Najdi rams was somewhat alkaline and lower during autumn than spring. Nevertheless, contradicted to (Talebi et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2015), where they found semen pH to not differ (p>0.05) throughout the year. However, this might due to the delays in semen processing after collection leading to acidic semen pH and the degradation of fructose by the sperm cells (Zamiri et al, 2010).…”

Effect of management system and season on semen freezability in Jakhrana bucks

“…The present results were also in agreement with Tuli and Holtz [26] who reported semen freezing during winter have a higher proportion of motile spermatozoa in Boer buck. However, the present findings were contrary to those reported by D'alessandro and Martemucci [27] in ram and Wang et al [28] in Sannen bucks. The interaction effect of the management system and season were found non-significant for all semen freezability parameters in this study.…”

Effect of sperm pooling with seminal plasma collected in breeding or nonbreeding season on Saanen goat sperm cryosurvival

“…Cryopreservation induces the acrosome reaction subsequent to premature capacitation (Neild et al., ); therefore, acrosome integrity is one of the key factors for the evaluation of frozen‐thawed semen (Gillan, Evans, & Maxwell, ). The data obtained related to post‐thaw acrosome defects in the present study agree with several other studies that reported a 35%–69% rate of acrosome defects resulting from the freeze–thaw process (Ustuner et al., , ; Wang et al., ). Cabrera et al.…”