Influence of sampling factors on canine sperm motility parameters measured by the Sperm Class Analyzer

• Published in: Systems biology in reproductive medicine 2011-12, Vol.57 (6), p.318-325
• Main Authors: Dorado, J., Rijsselaere, T., Muñoz-Serrano, A., Hidalgo, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; CASA; dog; Dogs; motion parameters; sperm analysis; Sperm Motility; spermatozoa
• ISSN: 1939-6368; 1939-6376
• DOI: 10.3109/19396368.2011.627081

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of different technical settings and semen processing on sperm motility parameters measured by the Sperm Class Analyzer (SCA). Semen was collected from 3 dogs, pooled, and diluted in phosphate buffered saline and subsequently assessed by the SCA for the different sperm motility characteristics. The data were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and the repeatability was assessed by coefficient of variation (CV). After a principal component analysis, the reliability was determined with intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). In experiment 1, the CV's were below 10% for all evaluated parameters. Significant differences (P  0.05) in SCA read-outs were found between the number of microscopic fields captured (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 fields), yielding the highest ICC (0.83) when 3 fields were captured. No significant differences (P > 0.05) in motility parameters were found between the number of cells analyzed in each field (20, 50, and 100 spermatozoa) with the exception of beat cross frequency. Reliability of the SCA was good (ICC = 0.71 to 0.90) for all motility measurements when 20 (ICC = 0.89) or 50 (ICC = 0.77) cells were captured in each field, but only just acceptable (ICC = 0.51 to 0.70) when 100 cells were counted (ICC = 0.67). The frame settings significantly (P