Effect of egg yolk concentration and washing on sperm quality following cryopreservation in Barbari buck semen

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of egg yolk concentration and washing on sperm quality in cryopreserved Barbari buck semen at higher dilution (100 × 106 cells/ml). Five healthy Barbari bucks of similar age and weight were selected as semen donor. Six ejaculates were collected from each buck during the experiment. Collected semen samples were pooled and diluted with Tris-based semen extender containing 6% glycerol and egg yolk according to the treatments – T-1, that is, 3% egg yolk, T-2, that is, 20% egg yolk and T-3, that is, 20% egg yolk after washing and cryopreserved using the slow freezing technique. Semen was evaluated at three different steps, namely, after dilution, after equilibration and after freeze–thawing. Significantly (p ≤ .01) higher values for motility and viability were observed in T-3 just after dilution while significantly (p ≤ .01) higher values for acrosomal integrity and pattern F (uncapacitated sperm) was observed in T-2. Significantly (p ≤ .01) higher values were observed in T-2 after equilibration and thawing. It may be concluded that incorporation of 20% egg yolk compared to 3% egg yolk or 20% egg yolk after washing in extender confer better cryoprotection to Barbari buck spermatozoa as reflected in semen quality parameters studied.