Assessment of the morphology of frozen-thawed bull sperm in relation to its cryopreservation for artificial insemination

The morphology of sperm in raw semen was compared with that of the live sperm in semen which had been frozen and thawed. The thawed semen was stained with 6-carboxyfluorescein diacetate and propidium iodide and examined by fluorescence microscopy; smears of the raw semen were stained with eosin and nigrosin. Thirty-four ejaculates from 24 bulls of various breeds were examined. There were fewer abnormal heads, detached heads, coiled tails and proximal cytoplasmic droplets/pseudodroplets in the thawed semen than in the raw semen, there was no change in the number of bent tails, but the number of distal cytoplasmic droplets/pseudodroplets increased. There were no significant differences in morphology between ejaculates which passed or failed the osmotic resistance test after thawing, but failed batches tended to have more distal cytoplasmic droplets/pseudodroplets.