MORPHOLOGICAL ABNORMALITIES OF RABBIT SPERMATOZOA STUDIED BY SCANNINGELECTRON-MICROSCOPE AND QUANTIFIED BY LIGHT-MICROSCOPE

Rabbit spermatozoa morphological abnormalities were examined to establ ish criteria for judging the quality of ejaculates. Ten New Zealand Wh ite bucks, aged 9 months and weighing 4.3 +/- 0.2 kg, were placed in a climatic chamber for 3 weeks at +20 degrees C and 70% RH. Sperm was c ollected three times a week using an artificial vagina. The use of a s canning electron microscope (from x 2 000 to x 15 000) in this study p roduced an illustrated guide for the classification of abnormalities. Mean percentage quantitative values studied by light microscope (x 400 ) observation were: 18.2% total abnormalities, 2.9% head abnormalities , 13.6% tail abnormalities and 1.7% broken spermatozoa. Variability wa s very high (CV 35.7, 54.0, 45.3 and 32.5%, respectively); consequentl y, each ejaculate should be analysed before use for artificial insemin ation. Among the different tail abnormalities observed, the most frequ ent were coiled tails, 9.1%, cytoplasmic droplets, 2.4%, bent tails, 1 .3% and swollen tails, 0.5%.