In Vitro Evaluation of Liquid-stored Buffalo Semen at 5°C Diluted in Soya Lecithin Based Extender (Bioxcell®), Tris-Citric Egg Yolk, Skim Milk and Egg Yolk-Citrate Extenders

This study was designed to compare the quality of liquid-stored buffalo bull spermatozoa in soya lecithin based extender Bioxcell ® (BIOX), milk (MILK), tris-citric egg yolk (TEY) and egg yolk-citrate (EYC) extender at 5°C. Semen was collected from five Nili-Ravi buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) bulls of 6-7 years of age with artificial vagina over a period of 3 weeks (two consecutive ejaculates once in a week). Semen ejaculates having more than 60% motility were pooled, split into four aliquots, diluted (37°C; 10 × 10 6 motile spermatozoa/ml), cooled from 37 to 5°C in 2 h (0.275°C/min) and stored for 5 days. Sperm motility, viability, plasma membrane integrity (PMI) and normal acrosomal ridge were studied at first, third and fifth day of storage. Higher values of progressive sperm motility (%), sperm viability (%), sperm PMI (%) and normal apical ridge (%) were observed in BIOX, MILK and TEY extenders at first, third and fifth day of storage than EYC extender. Progressive sperm motility, sperm viability and sperm PMI in BIOX ® extender were not different from MILK and TEY extenders at 1st and third day storage period. However, at fifth day of storage, the values for these parameters remained significantly higher (p < 0.05) in BIOX ® compared with MILK, TEY and EYC extenders. At fifth day of storage, the semen quality parameters for Bioxcell ® were comparable to those with MILK and TEY extenders at third day of storage. In conclusion, motility, viability and PMI of buffalo bull spermatozoa remained similar in Bioxcell ® , milk and TEY extender at first and third days of storage at 5°C. Yet, the values for the aforementioned parameters in Bioxcell ® were higher compared with milk, TEY and EYC extender at fifth day of storage at 5°C.