Abstract
Sodium Pyruvate, an antioxidant, has been successfully used in semen cryopreservation of many species. Limited or no information is available in the buck. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of addition of sodium pyruvate in extender on post thaw quality of buck semen. Three mature Beetal bucks with seven replicates at Al-Haiwan Sires, Semen Production Unit, Sahiwal were used in this study. Pooled semen samples, passing the minimum criteria, were further divided into four equal aliquots. These aliquots were extended with tris citric acid yolk extender (50x10(6) spermatozoa/ ml) and with different concentrations (0mM, 1mM, 5mM, 10mM) of sodium pyruvate (Sigma-Aldrich; P4562) at 37 °C. The extended semen samples (loaded in 0.5ml French straws) were cooled, equilibrated and frozen in liquid nitrogen using standard procedure for buck semen. Post thaw semen evaluation assays (%) including motility, live percentage, abnormalities, plasma membrane integrity, acrosomal integrity, DNA integrity and mitochondrial integrity using special staining/ solutions under phase contrast/ fluorescent microscopes were studied. Furthermore, to measure the oxidative stress, post thaw enzymatic evaluation of semen by malondialdehyde (MDA) (µmol/l) and catalase test (Ku/l) using specific procedures were carried out. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine the significant differences (P<0.05) using the SPSS 16.0 software and DMR test. It was observed that values of all of the post thaw evaluation assays except abnormalities in 10mM treatment group were significantly (P< 0.05) better than those of control group (Table-1). Similarly, the oxidative stress was significantly lower (P < 0.05) in 10mM treatment group as compared to Control group. It may be concluded that the addition of 10mM sodium pyruvate in semen extender improves post thaw quality of Buck semen which was also assessed through the measurement of oxidative stress in all the treatment groups.