Objective: To examine the effect of different concentrations of trehalose or sucrose (50 or 100 or 200 mM) on post-thawed quality of bull semen, cryo-preserved in Tris-citric acid-egg yolk-fructose (TCYF). Methods: Semen samples were diluted in TCYF extender, TCYF + trehalose (50, 100 and 150 mM/L) or TCYF + sucrose (50, 100 and 150 mM/L) to ensure 60 million motile spermatozoa mL-1, cooled slowly up to 5 °C and equilibrated for 4 h. Semen was packed into 0.25 mL polyvinyl French straws. The straws were placed horizontally on a rack and frozen in a vapor 4 cm above liquid nitrogen (LN2) for 10 minutes then dipped in liquid LN2. Frozen straws were thawed at 37 °C for 1 min. The parameters studied were sperm motility, sperm viability, sperm abnormality, sperm membrane integrity (HOST), percent of normal intact acrosome and DNA fragmentation. Results: The output data demonstrated that addition of 50–100 mM of trehalose or sucrose/L TCYF after chilling at 5 °C had significantly (P<0.0001) ameliorated motility, membrane integrity, viability, abnormal morphology, and acrosome integrity % compared to control diluted semen while 50 mM of trehalose/L, and 50–100 mM of sucrose/L to TCYF diluent had significantly (P<0.0001) improved after thawing motility (43.00,% 45.00% and 41.00%, respectively), membrane integrity (67.40%, 67.80% and 69.40%, respectively), life sperm % (70.20%, 69.40% and 71.40% respectively), and acrosome integrity percentages (56.40%, 58.80% and 55.80% respectively) compared to the control tris-base diluent, while diminishing the abnormal sperm morphology (6.20, 3.80 and 3.80 respectively) and DNA fragmentation (3.60%, 3.80% and 3.80% respectively). Besides, the addition of 100 mM of trehalose/L to tris-base diluent has also a promising effect when added to the tris-base diluent concerning the above parameters. Conclusion: It is finally concluded that the addition of 50–100 mM trehalose or sucrose/L to TCYF have a beneficial effect in chilling diluted bull semen, while the use of 50 mM trehalose or 50–100 mM sucrose had their benefits on freezing-thawing of extended semen

Objective: To investigate the effect of extender supplementation with different concentrations of a honey bee on post-thawed sperm motility, viability index, membrane and acrosome integrities in Arab stallion. Methods: Five ejaculates from each of four Arabian stallions were subjected to cryopreservation with a modified INRA-82, without any supplementation (control) or supplemented with 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5% honey bee. After thawing, all samples were maintained at 37 °C, while analyses were performed at 0, 1, and 2 and 3 h. Sperm motility percentage, viability index percentage, membrane integrity percentage and acrosome integrity percentage of each sample were determined by conventional laboratory methods. Results: Relative to the control group, supplementation with honey (2%, 3% and 4% significantly improved (P < 0.01 at least) post-thaw sperm motility, viability index (P < 0.001 at least) and had a positive effect on membrane integrity and intact acrosome percentage (P < 0.001 at least) at 0, 1, 2 and 3 h post-thawing. For all semen parameters, the lower concentration of honey (1%) and higher concentration (5%) did not show significant differences (P > 0.05) compared with the control. Conclusion: Honey bee supplementation in Arab stallion semen extenders provided a better protection of sperm parameters against cryopreservation injury, in comparison to the control groups

Objective: To study the effect of adding different concentrations of the pomegranate juice (PJ) to the cattle bull semen extender on post-thawing semen quality. Methods: Semen was collected from five cattle-bulls at weekly intervals for 5 weeks at the Semen Freezing Center, General Organization for Vet. Services, Ministry of Agriculture. Semen samples were diluted in Tris-citric acid-egg yolk-fructose extender and divided into six aliquots, the 1st served as control while PJ was supplemented at 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% in the aliquot 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively. Diluted semen samples were subjected to cooling and cryopreservation and stored in liquid nitrogen (LN2). Sperm motility in chilled semen (over 10 d) and post-thawing sperm parameters, including individual motility, alive sperm, membrane integrity, and total sperm abnormality were assessed. Results: Obtained results clearly demonstrated that the addition of 10% PJ in the chilled extended cattle semen proved to be beneficial for maintaining sperm motility percentage. On the other hand, the addition of 40% and 50% PJ failed to preserve motility all over the 10 d. Also, supplementation of extender with 10–20% PJ significantly increases the post-thaw motility and viability as compared with control group. Conclusions: Supplementation of bull semen extender with 10% and 20% PJ provides good chilling and improved frozen-thawed semen quality