Sperm motility assessment of epididymal sperm from post mortem goat testicles held at 5°C

Appropriate holding conditions for post mortem testicles of goat to yield quality epididymal sperm (ES) as a source of genetic material for cryobanking and fertilization studies are lacking. In this study, the effect of storage time on the motility of ES from post mortem testicles maintained at 5°C was evaluated. In the laboratory, the cauda epididymides were excised from the testicles after 4 hr (G-1) and 24 hr (G-2) of holding time before collecting the sperm in a Tris-citrate buffered solution and evaluated using a CASA. Sperm motility profiling revealed a subpopulation of static, slow, motile and progressive ES. The proportion of static sperm in the control (16.97±6.21) and G-1 (21.53±5.60) were lower significantly than G-2 (36.13±5.05). The proportion of slow moving sperm was lower significantly than G-1 (23.31±3.57) and G-2 (25.45±3.32). The proportion of motile and progressive motile sperm decreases significantly (P<0.05) as the holding time increases at 78.46±4.64% (G-1) to 63.85±4.06 (G-2) and 45.53±8.89 (G-1) to 25.46±8.42 (G-2), respectively. The results showed that prolonged storage of post mortem testicles at 5°C could result to a reduced percentage of motile and progressively motile ES. Nevertheless, this considerable proportion of ES remained useful both for cryobanking and fertilization studies.