Author(s)

Uchenna Macnissi Chima¹, Adakole Hyacinth Abu¹, Philip Makama Dawuda², Aboh Iku Kisani², Terzungwe Ahemen³

¹Department of Veterinary Physiology, Pharmacology and Biochemistry, College of Veterinary Medicine, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria.
²Department of Veterinary Surgery and Theriogenology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria.
³Department of Animal Breeding and Physiology, College of Animal Science, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria.

Aim: Storage of testes-epididymides at refrigeration temperature is a promising method of short-term sperm preservation for use in reproductive biotechnology in dogs. This study aimed to determine the effect of storage time at 4°C on the quality of Nigerian local dogs’ cauda epididymal spermatozoa recovered post-castration. Materials and Methods: Testes along with their epididymides collected immediately after castration of local dogs were either processed immediately (0th hour) or stored at 4°C in the refrigerator for 12th, 24th or 48th hours and then processed. Each storage group comprised 5 pairs of testes-epididymides. Sperm motility, concentration, livability, acrosome integrity and morphology from the various storage groups were evaluated and means with standard error of the mean (±SEM) were recorded. Results: Mean percent sperm motility at 0th hour (77.0 ± 2.6) decreased significantly (p < 0.05) after 12 hours (68.0 ± 1.2), 24 hours (66.0 ± 2.4) and 48 hours (60.0 ± 1.6) of storage at 4°C. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was found when the mean sperm concentrations (×107/ml) of the storage groups (5.86 ± 47, 5.24 ± 26 and 5.38 ± 31) were compared with the control (6.48 ± 0.75). Mean percent sperm livability did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) between the 0th, 12th, 24th and 48th hour groups (86.4 ± 1.5, 78.0 ± 3.1 and 75.0 ± 1.8 respectively). However, there was a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in mean percent sperm livability after 48 hours of storage (69.8 ± 4.2) as compared with the 0th hour group. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was detected in the mean percent acrosome integrity between the 0th, 12th, 24th and 48th hour groups (90.0 ± 1.5, 83.0 ± 3.5, 84.6 ± 4.6 and 82.2 ± 3.9 respectively). A significant increase (p < 0.05) in percent sperm morphological defect was detected after 48 hours of storage (37.6 ± 2.7) as compared to the 0th hour group (27.4 ± 2.0). Conclusion: The current study has shown that viable spermatozoa can be recovered after 48 hours of storage at 4°C of the cauda epididymides of Nigerian local dogs.

Castration, Testes, Epididymides, Nigerian Local Dogs, Spermatozoa

Chima, U. , Abu, A. , Dawuda, P. , Kisani, A. and Ahemen, T. (2017) Effect of Storage Time on Cauda Epididymal Sperm Parameters of Nigerian Local Dogs. Open Journal of Veterinary Medicine, 7, 151-161. doi: 10.4236/ojvm.2017.711016.