Effect of testicles post mortem storage on goat frozen-thawed epididymal sperm quality as a tool to improve genebanking in local breeds.

The interest in developing assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) and cryobanking for farm animal genetic resources conservation is recently increased. However, cryopreservation for ex-situ management of genetic diversity sometimes is not routinely feasible, due to the lack of facilities (AI centres, laboratories) and expertises near the local breeds farming area. In these cases epididymal sperm obtained from slaughtered or castrated animals, associated to the possibility of managing rather long periods between animal death, sperm recovery and freezing, would increase the opportunities to create semen storages. This investigation addresses the pre-freeze/post-thaw quality of goat epididymal sperm as function of testicles storage temperature (environment or +5°C) and time elapsed between animal's death and sperm recovery (0, 24, 48, 72 h) in order to establish the optimal protocols for the recovery and cryopreservation of epididymal sperm in this species. Testicles of 50 mature bucks collected at the abattoir were divided in two groups: half of testicles (n = 50) was transported to the laboratory at environment temperature (E), while the remaining half (n = 50) at a refrigeration temperature (R) of +5°C. In the two groups (E) and (R) one testicle from each pair was processed after slaughter forming the time 0 groups (0E and 0R). The contra-lateral testicle was processed after 24, 48 or 72 h of storage, at the corresponding temperature. Sperm motility and kinetics parameters, viability and morphology were assessed in pre-freeze and post-thaw samples. Until 48 h post mortem, both E and R temperatures are able to maintain good pre-freeze epididymal sperm quality. After 48 h post mortem, R temperature is fundamental to reduce epididymal sperm quality decay in pre-freeze samples. Moreover testicles refrigeration has a positive impact also on post-thaw samples, allowing a lower decline through time considering total motility, kinetics parameters, sperm viability and sperm abnormalities. Therefore when sperm cryopreservation is not immediately practicable goat testicles should be transported and stored at 5°C up to a maximum of 48 h post mortem to ensure an acceptable sperm quality.