J. Anim Sci.
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J. Anim Sci. 1981. 53:1368-1376.
© 1981 American Society of Animal Science
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Comparisons of Computer Evaluations of Spermatozoal Motility with Standard Laboratory Tests and their use for Predicting Fertility1

M. T. O'Connor2, R. P. Amann1,2, and R. G. Saacke4

The Pennsylvania State University, Univesity Park 16802

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to determine (1) the correlations between computer evaluations of spermatozoal motility and the results of selected conventional laboratory tests of seminal quality and (2) if computer evaluations of spermatozoal motility provide a better prediction of spermatozoal fertilizing ability than conventional laboratory tests. In Exp. 1, 38 samples of semen used for commercial artificial insemination in dairy herds were evaluated. Fertility was expressed as the 66-day nonreturn rate and was based on 83 to 383 first service inseminations/seminal sample. For semen evaluated after extension or after 0 or 3 hr of post-thaw incubation, correlations between computer motility evaluations and visual motility estimations ranged between .46 and .76. The 66-day nonreturn rate was not significantly correlated with results of computer evaluations or with results of most other laboratory quality tests. However, the low correlations between nonreturn rate and laboratory tests of seminal quality may have been a consequence of the imprecision in the determinations of 66-day nonreturn rates. In Exp. 2, cows were inseminated with 30 to 35 x 106 sperm representing equal numbers of sperm from two bulls. Based on parentage of the resulting 229 calves, a competitive fertility index ranking nine bulls was calculated. Correlations between computer evaluations of spermatozoal motility or velocity and visual estimations of spermatozoal motility ranged between .48 and .77. Correlations between data from computer evaluations and track motility were ~.36 and those between computer evaluations and the percentage of sperm with an intact acrosome were between .53 and .74. Correlations between data from each method of semen evaluation and the competitive fertility index generally were significant. The present technique for computer evaluation of spermatozoal motility offers no advantage over less costly and more traditional objective methods of evaluating seminal quality.

Footnotes

1 Authorized for publication as Paper No. 6126 in the Journal Ser. of the Pennsylvania Agr. Exp. Sta. Supported in part by gifts from the National Association of Animal Breeders, Columbia, MO. The cooperation of Atlantic Breeders Cooperative, Lancaster, PA, and Select Sires, Inc., Plain City, OH, and the technical assistance of Mr. R. J. Branas, Mrs. A. Keene, Mrs. H. Homan and Mr. J. E. English are acknowledged

2 Dairy Breeding Research Center.

4 Virginia Polytechnic Inst, and State Univ., Blacksburg.






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Copyright © 1981 by the American Society of Animal Science.