Reduced glutathione and field fertility with frozen-thawed boar semen

摘要

The use of frozen-thawed boar sperm in artificial insemination is marginal (only 2% of swine inseminations). This is explained with different reasons, including the lower fertility rates and litter sizes when compared to fresh/extended semen. In fact,sperm cryopreservation in pigs, as in other mammalian species, is known to damage sperm plasma membrane and nucleus and reduces sperm survival. However, supplementing cryopreservation extenders with 2mM glutathione (GSH) is known to increase the resistance of nucleo-protein structure against freeze-thawing as well as sperm motility and survival at post-thawing. In a very recent study, we demonstrated that adding 2mM GSH to LEY and LEYGO extenders significantly improves fertility and prolificacy of boarfrozen-thawed semen. Using that as a guide, we have cry-opreserved boar semen in the presence (0 mM) or absence of 2mM GSH, prior to performing field fertility trials.