PREGNANCY RATES USING FROZEN SEMEN OF CRIOLLO STALLIONS WITH GLYCEROL OR DIMETHYLFORMAMID AS CRYOPROTECTANTS

Abstract

Pregnancy rates using stallions’s frozen semen are variable; moreover,  some breeds  present low freezability. One hundred and four (104)  mares were inseminated and separeted into two experiments to evaluate fertility of frozen semen’s of Criollo stallions (n=5), with 5% of dimethylformamide (DMF) or 5% of glycerol (GLY) as cryoprotectants. In Experiment I, the inseminations were made during pre-ovulation with fresh and frozen semen with DMF. In Experiment II, the mares were inseminated during post-ovulation with fresh semen, DMF and GL. The inseminations with frozen semen were performed deep in the uterine horn ipsilateralis to the dominant follicle. Control mares were inseminated with fresh semen in the uterus. Only one estrus period per mare was used to evaluate the pregnancy rates of the groups. Pregnancy diagnosis through ultrasonography was performed on the 15^th day post-ovulation. The mean post-thawing motility was 40% and 20%, respectively, for frozen semen with DMF and GLY (P<0.05). All stallions had higher post-thawing motility when using DMF. In Experiment I, pregnancy rates were 12% (5/42) and 62% (20/32), respectively for DMF and fresh semen (P<0.0001). In Experiment II, pregnancy rates were 40% (4/10), 10% (1/10) and 70% (7/10), respectively for DMF, GLY (P<0.05) and fresh semen (P<0.0001). Insemination with frozen semen performed with more frequent follicular control showed the best results. The low sperm motility after thawing was attributed to the GLY used in experiment II. The DMF can be used alternatively to Criollos Stallion’s semen feezing.

KEYWORDS: Artificial insemination; cryopreservation; cryoprotectant; equine; spermatozoa.