Preservation of the genetic material of native Hungarian breeds. Studies on short - term storage of semen

Background: The loss in biodiversity could lead to inbreeding and may cause extinction of different species / breeds in the animal world. Inbreeding seriously endangers the native Hungarian dog breeds because of their low number of individuals. The use of chilled or frozen semen of male dogs with high genetic value may help us to avoid the inbreeding, because we can produce offspring from geographically distant individuals, and the number of offspring born from top quality males during their lifetime could be increased. Using frozen semen for insemination puppies can be produced even after the death of the male. Objectives: After thawing, the motility of chilled or frozen spermatozoa is reduced compared to fresh spermatozoa. In order to protect. our native Hungarian dog breeds, it is very important to develop and simplify semen storage / cryopreservation techniques, as well as to improve the efficiency of these methods. Through this we can facilitate the integration of these procedures into the daily work of dog breeding. Materials and Methods: Beagle male dogs were used in our study. Sperm samples were collected by the clinical staff of the Obstetrics Unit a. the Small Animal Clinic of the University of Veterinary Medicine. Samples from the same ejaculates were placed in 1 ml Eppendorf tubes and diluted with different Extenders (1:4 dilution rate was used). The diluted semen samples were stored at 5-6 degrees C for several days. During storage, the motility of spermatozoa was checked daily with CASA. Results and Discussion: The motility of spermatozoa was significantly lower in the samples diluted with Bovidyl or Triladyl on day 2 compared to the fresh sample. In case of samples diluted with AndroLT, AndroST, CaniPro, a significant difference was found only on day 6. If traditional method of insemination (intravaginal insemination) is sued and the motility is above 50% the pregnancy rate is relatively high. For Bovidyl-, mean motility dropped below 50% as early as day 2. However, the other diluents tested maintained the average motility above 50% until day 5. CaniPro proved to be the most effective, since sperm motility was above 60% still on day 7 of storage.