Cryopreservation of houbara semen: A pilot study

The potential of producing viable houbara bustard Chlamydotis undulata undu lata progeny with cryopreserved semen was investigated during the 1998 bree ding season. Houbara semen was diluted and rapidly frozen into pellet form in LN2 using dimethylacetamide (DMA) as a cryoprotectant. Thawed semen exhi bited 24.86 +/- 10.61% recovery of fresh sperm motility levels and 36.44 +/ - 16.17% of fresh viability counts. Two second-year females were inseminate d on two and three occasions, respectively, with thawed semen. One female l aid four eggs between two clutches and the second female laid two eggs in a single clutch. All eggs were fertile; two developed to 18-21 days but fail ed to pip; one chick died at pip and three chicks hatched. This is the firs t documented occasion that houbara bustard chicks were conceived with cryop reserved semen and it demonstrates the feasibility of using a rapid, simple , and relatively inexpensive methodology to achieve this result. (C) 1999 W iley-Liss, Inc.