Effect of sugar supplementation in diluent on buck sperm characteristics at refrigeration temperature

A study was conducted to ascertain the effect of glucose and fructose on long term preservation of buck semen at refrigeration temperature. Semen ejaculates from 10 Barbari bucks were collected twice at weekly intervals using artificial vagina. After initial assessments, good semen samples were pooled and split into two parts and diluted one part in egg yolk, Tris, citric acid and fructose diluter and another part in egg yolk, Tris, citric acid and glucose diluent followed by equilibration for 4 h at 5ºC. The semen was evaluated for viability, motility, plasma membrane integrity and acrosomal integrity at specific time intervals of 0, 24, 48 and 72 h after dilution. The sperm motility was significantly higher (P<0.05) at 24 h in diluent containing glucose as compared to fructose. However, the motility decreased subsequently at 48 and 72 h. Other characters like sperm viability, plasma membrane integrity and acrosomal integrity decreased significantly (P<0.05) at 72 h in the diluent containing glucose as compared to fructose. In conclusion, fructose is more suitable than glucose for long term storage of buck semen at refrigeration temperature.