MEMBRANE INTEGRITY AND FERTILIZING POTENTIAL OF CRYOPRESERVED SPERMATOZOA IN EUROPEAN MOUFLON

There is a pressing need to develop and use assisted reproductive tech niques in wildlife species living in small and captive groups. We eval uated the effect of freezing on membrane integrity and fertilizing cap acity of European mouflon (Ovis gmelini musimon) spermatozoa collected during the breeding season. After thawing, the percentage of live spe rmatozoa, stained with fluorescein isothiocynate labeled Pisum Sativum agglutinin and propidium iodide, was 47% of which 19% showed intact a crosomal membrane. After culture in TCM 199 + 10% FCS, the number of l ive spermatozoa was significantly (P < 0.01) lower than in a medium wi th oviductal epithelial cells. The absence of oviductal cells decrease d significantly the fertilization rates (P < 0.05), 24.0 vs. 63.1 with oviductal epithelial cells and 59.1 in vivo of in vitro matured ovine oocytes. Polyspermic fertilization rate of oocytes was lower(P < 0.05 ) with oviductal epithelial cells (1.6) than in absence of cells (12.8 ). However, the percentage of embryos that reached blastocyst stage wa s significantly higher in vivo than in vitro. These results provide in teresting preliminary data for the development of genetic resource ban ks for European mouflon. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights res erved.