Evaluation of a portable device for assessment of motility in stallion semen

摘要

In horse breeding, quality assessment of semen before insemination is often requested. Non‐laboratory‐based techniques for objective analysis of sperm motility are thus of interest. The aim of this study was evaluating a portable device for semen analysis (Ongo sperm test) and its comparison with computer‐assisted semen analysis (CASA). Semen was collected from 10 stallions, diluted to 100, 50 and 25 × 10  sperm/ml and analysed for total (TM) and progressive motility (PM). The final sperm concentration influenced total motility analysed by Ongo (  6 sperm/ml when compared to 25 × 10  sperm/ml (  6 sperm/ml (n.s.). Sperm concentration did not influence total motility when assessed by SpermVision (n.s.). Agreement between methods was evaluated by correlation analysis and Bland–Altman plot. Intra‐assay variation of Ongo was 5.2% ± 3.0 for TM and 6.9% ± 3.4 for PM. Correlation between Ongo and CASA was  = 0.79, 0.88 and 0.83 for 100, 50 and 25 × 10  sperm/ml for TM, and  = 0.87, 0.89 and 0.87 for PM, respectively (all  6 sperm/ml, respectively. In conclusion, Ongo sperm test sperm motility data were strongly correlated with data obtained by CASA. In addition, at a concentration of 50 × 10  sperm/ml values measured with both systems were close to identical. At this concentration, which is recommended in equine AI, Ongo and CASA can be used interchangeably.