SEMINAL COLLECTION, SEMINAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PATTERN OF EJACULATION IN LLAMAS

摘要

Semen was collected from 10/10 llamas during 26/30 (87%) collection attempts using an artificial vagina mounted inside a surrogate female. For the 26 semen collections, the duration of copulation (mount to dismount) with the artificial vagina was 31.7+/-12.0 min (mean+/-SD). Seminal pH was 8.1+/-1.1, and seminal volume per collection was 3.0+/-1.9 ml. Sperm concentration per collection was 1.0+/-0.8x10(6) sperm/ml, total number of spermatozoa was 2.9+/-3.1x10(6), total sperm motility was 23.7+/-20.0%, and the percentage of morphologically normal spermatozoa was 39.7+/-18.5%. Morphologically abnormal spermatozoa were categorized according to abnormal heads (20.1+/-19.9%), tail-less heads (8.7+/-8.9%), abnormal acrosomes (12.9+/-12.4%), abnormal midpieces (1.0+/-3.7%), cytoplasmic droplets (11.1+/-12.4%), and abnormal tails (6.6+/-12.0%). There were 0.3+/-0.3 million motile, morphologically normal spermatozoa per collection: less than 1000 during the first 5 min of copulation, 0.01+/-0.01x10(6) between 5 and 10 min of copulation, 0.04+/-0.08x10(6) between 10 and 15 min of copulation, 0.09+/-0.21x10(6) between 15 and 20 min of copulation, and 0.15+/-0.28x10(6) between 20 min and the end of copulation.