INTERACTIONS OF DILUENTS, CRYOPROTECTIVE AGENTS AND STRAW FILLING CAPACITY ON QUALITY AND FERTILIZING ABILITY OF BUFFALO SEMEN

The present study was carried out on three buffalo bulls. Their semen was extended in three diluents (Milk, Laiciphos and Tris) with three cryoprotec- live agents (Glycerol, DMSO and propylene gly- col. PG) packaged in either mini (0.25ml) or medi (0.50 ml) straws. Significant differences in the percentages of post-thawing motility (PTM), intact acrosome (PIA) and hypoosmotic swelling lest (HOST) were observed for semen extended in Milk diluent (52.8 ±0.39% ; 95.4 ±0.43% and 17.97 ±0.27% respectively), Laciphos (48.33± 0.48%; 94.5 ±0.29% and 15.77±0.22%, respectively) and Tris (46.23 ±0.49% ; 92.13±0.37% and 14.43 (0.21% respectively). The semen quality test (SQT) appeared significantly higher for milk diluent (2.13 ±0.11) than Tris and Laiciphos diluents ( 1.77 ±0.05 and 1.72 ±0.06 respectively).The capacity of straws had a significant effect on PIA and SQT of mini straws (94.78 ± 0.33 and 16.29 ±0.30 respectively) compared to medi straws ( (93.2 ±0.35)% and 15.87 ±0.28 respectively). Significant effects were recorded for cryoprotective agents on PTM, PIA and HOST in semen cryoprotected with glycerol (51.14 ±0.52% 95.33 (0.3% and 17 ±0.38 respectively) compared to DMSO (49.03 ±0.56 ; 94.27 ±0.44% and 16.07± 0.29%, respectively) and PG ( (47.20 ±0.75% 92.47 ±0.93% and 15.1 ±0.38% respectively). The conception rates (CR) showed non significant differences among semen extended in Milk diluent (60.78%), Laiciphos (48.00%) and Tris (43.40%) and among glycerol (53.70%); DMSO (50.98%) and PG (46.94%) as cryoprotective agents and between mini (52.50%) and medi (48.65%) straws. Meanwhile a higher CR (57.14%) was recorded for semen extended in Milk diluent cryoprotected with glycerol and packaged in mini straws. From the present study it can be concluded that, the use of milk extender for freezing buffalo semen packaged in mini straws is an efficient method for obtaining good quality semen and high fertility rate.