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Effects of Storage Temperature and Length of Storage Time upon the Post-thawing Motility and Metabolic Activity of Frozen Bull Semen¹

Department of Dairy Science, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Sussex

ABSTRACT

Twenty-three semen samples were diluted in egg-yolk-sodium citrate dihydrate-glycerol diluent, and frozen. Some of the diluted subsamples were stored at –196 C in liquid nitrogen and some at –79 C in dry ice-alcohol. The mean motility, sugar utilization, and lactic acid production were significantly greater for semen stored at –196 than at –79 C over 18 months of storage (P < 0.01). With increasing time of storage, the mean motility and sugar utilization of the semen declined linearly, with the decline being less for semen stored at –196 C. For every three months of storage, the motility of the semen stored at –196 C decreased 1.33 percentage units, whereas that stored at –79 C declined 2.02 percentage units. Sugar utilization during 3 hr of incubation at 37 C declined 0.033 mg and 0.089 mg/10⁹ spermatozoa each three months of storage at, respectively, –196 C and –79 C. These were significant (P < 0.05) linear regressions and within each parameter the difference between the regressions was significant (P < 0.01). With lactic acid, no significant linear, quadratic, or cubic regressions were obtained, but a highly significant interaction was found between storage temperature and storage time.

Adjustment of the metabolic activity per percentage unit of motile spermatozoa showed that a storage temperature of –196 C was also more beneficial in preserving the capability of a higher metabolic activity by the spermatozoa than a temperature of –79 C.

¹ Paper of the Journal Series, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers—The State University, New Brunswick. This research was supported in part by a grant-in-aid from the National Association of Artificial Breeders.

² Present address: American Breeders Service, Inc., Madison, Wisconsin.