Premium
The HOS test and its relationship to fertility in the stallion
Author(s) -
Neild D. M.,
Chaves M. G.,
Flores M.,
Miragaya M. H.,
Gonzalez E.,
Agüero A.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
andrologia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1439-0272
pISSN - 0303-4569
DOI - 10.1046/j.1439-0272.2000.00357.x
Subject(s) - fertility , semen , pregnancy , andrology , semen analysis , pregnancy rate , significant difference , medicine , gynecology , biology , physiology , infertility , population , environmental health , genetics
The hypo‐osmotic test has been used successfully on equine semen and was considered to be a simple and accessible method which could be a useful addition to routine equine semen analysis. It was therefore of interest to determine whether the hypo‐osmotic test is significantly correlated to proposed criteria of fertility. The stallions were divided into two groups on the basis of threshold levels of fertility. A significant difference ( P <0.05) was found between the two groups for the following parameters: progressive motility, morphologically normal spermatozoa, percentage of swelling with the hypo‐osmotic test, percentage of pregnant mares and number of services per pregnancy. The hypo‐osmotic test provided a simple evaluation of membrane function and the results obtained show stallions with low swelling scores (<40%) to be of doubtful fertility. The hypo‐osmotic test was not correlated with percentage of pregnant mares but showed a tendency to correlate with the number of services per pregnancy, therefore it could be an additional method for evaluating stallion fertility. Further studies are needed to confirm this observation.