Use of collagenase type-1 to improve the seminal characteristics of dromedary camel semen

Abstract

In this study a total of forty semen ejaculates were collected during the breeding season from eight different stud camels using artificial vagina. All ejaculates were spilt into 3 equal parts of aliquots. One aliquots was kept as control (A1) and two of these were diluted with tris buffer media in 1:1 with (A3) or without (A2) addition of 0.1 % collagenase type-I enzyme and evaluated for macroscopic and microscopic semen characteristics after being kept at room temperature for 20 min. All aliquots were pipetted to observe the macroscopic examination (Consistency and rheological (Thread formation) properties). Aliquot (A3) did not form thread when pipetted and showed thin watery consistency while the other two aliquots (A1 and A2) did evidence thick viscid, thick and thin watery consistency in different proportions. Only aliquot (A3) showed initial individual sperm motility and functional activity (HOST) curled tailed spermatozoa with overall average over 70%. There were significant differences (p<0.01) between all the aliquots for sperm motility and sperm with functional membrane where as non- significant differences (p>0.01) were observed between all the aliquots for live spermatozoa and sperm abnormalities percentage. An overall mean of sperm concentration in the camel semen treated with collagenase enzyme was 3.31.75± 13.17 million/ml. The results showed that treating semen with 0.1% collagenase in tris buffer media improves semen macroscopic and microscopic characteristic and also facilitates the separation of spermatozoa from seminal plasma in dromedary camel semen.