EFFECT OF POST-THAW ADDITION OF SEMINAL PLASMA ON MOTILITY, VIABILITY AND CHROMATIN INTEGRITY OF CRYOPRESERVED DONKEY JACK (EQUUS ASINUS) SPERMATOZOA

Pregnancy rates in donkeys after artificial insemination with cryopreserved semen are still low, compared to the horse species. Addition of autologous seminal plasma to frozen-thawed semen appeared to improve pregnancy rates. The aims of this study were to evaluate (1) sperm motility and plasma membrane integrity after thawing (T0) and after one and 2 h (T1 and T2) of post-thaw incubation in either 0% (SP0) or 70% (SP70) autologous seminal plasma and (2) sperm motility, plasma membrane integrity and DNA quality (%COMP-αt) after thawing (T0) and after 2 and 4 h (T2 and T4) of post-thaw incubation in either 0% (SP0), 5% (SP5) or 20% (SP20) homologous seminal plasma. In experiment 1, seminal plasma decreased total and progressive sperm motility and plasma membrane intact spermatozoa immediately after dilution and at all following time points (p < 0.05). In experiment 2, total and progressive motility did not differ between treatments immediately after dilution and between SP0 and SP5 at T2, while they were lower in both SP5 and SP20 than in SP0 at T4. Plasma membrane intact sperm cells did not differ between SP0 and SP5 and were lower in SP20 at all time points. DNA quality was not affected by treatment immediately after dilution and was significantly worse for SP20 after 4 h of incubation (p < 0.05). The post-thaw addition of seminal plasma at the tested concentrations did not improve donkey frozen semen characteristics in vitro over tim