An approach to rescue the fertility of stallions with a high level of hemospermia

Abstract

A high amount of blood and not the mere presence of blood in equine semen impacts fertility. The aim of this study was to develop an approach to rescue the fertility of stallions with high hemospermia levels. Semen from 15 stallions was divided into four experimental groups: (a) Control—pure raw semen, (b) WB50—50% (v/v) whole blood added into semen, (c) E1—WB50 extended in a 1:1 (v/v) ratio with milk-based extender and (d) E2—WB50 extended in a 2:1 ratio with milk-based extender. Sperm kinetics, plasma membrane integrity (PMI), lipid peroxidation (PER) and intracellular superoxide (O2) production were immediately evaluated. Four cycles of 20 mares were randomly assigned to the experimental groups. Mares were bred with an insemination dose of 1 billion total sperm and pregnancy was diagnosed 14 days after ovulation. Sperm kinetics could not be evaluated in the WB50 samples. Total motility was lower (p <.05) in E1 than in CT and E2 samples. Progressive motility decreased (p <.05) with an increase in the percentage of blood in the samples. The PMI and PER did not differ between groups (p >.05); however, O2 production was higher (p <.05) in WB50 than in E2 samples, while the values were intermediate (p >.05) for CT and E1 samples. The control (90%) and E2 (90%) groups had superior (p <.05) fertility than the others (WB50—0% and E1—25%). It was concluded that sperm motility and fertility of semen with a large amount of blood can be rescued by dilution with a 2:1 extender:semen ratio using a milk-based extender.