Abstract
Summary The quality of fish spermatozoa has been assessed by evaluating sperm motility and viability with the aim to improve the success of controlled fertilization in hatcheries. However, the relationship between various parameters is still unclear. In this study, we described simultaneous changes in sperm viability (using a NucleoCounter SP-100) and motility parameters (using computer-assisted sperm analysis, CASA) during an 8-day wet storage of rainbow trout semen (n = 16). The relationship between the parameters pH and storage time was evaluated and related to the sperm motility rate activated at pH 6.5 and measured at the beginning of experiment. Their viability was always higher than motility during short-time storage, and these parameters significantly correlated only from day 6 of storage. After day 8, the final viability (38.2 ± 32.5%) was 56% lower compared to the initial value (86.4 ± 4.5%), whereas the average percentage of motility decreased about 80% after an 8-day storage (from 77.4 ± 12.1 to 16.0 ± 15.2%). The motility of fresh sperm at pH 6.5 was related to the higher sperm motility during storage, nevertheless such an effect on viability was found only on the last day of storage. Semen samples with the motility at pH 6.5 were characterized by higher seminal plasma osmolality (245.4 ± 36.6 mOsm kg−1) compared to immotile ones (184.9 ± 42.2 mOsm kg−1). It can be suggested that sperm motility is more appropriate in the evaluation of sperm quality in hatchery conditions as compared to viability. Higher values of viability compared to those of motility suggest that the viability parameter can be useful for the examination of the mechanism of changes in rainbow trout spermatozoa during short-time storage. The sperm motility rate at pH 6.5 seems to be a helpful parameter for the evaluation of rainbow trout sperm quality and usefulness for short-time storage.
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