
%0 Journal Article
%A Maxwell, W. M. C. 
%A Evans, G. 
%A Mortimer, S. T. 
%A Gillan, L. 
%A Gellatly, E. S. 
%A McPhie, C. A. 
%T Normal fertility in ewes after cervical insemination with frozen&#8211;thawed spermatozoa supplemented with seminal plasma
%J Reproduction, Fertility and Development
%D 1999/12/17
%V 11
%N 2
%P 123-126
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/RD99046
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/RD99046 
%X The effect of seminal plasma (SP) on the motility, capacitation status, penetration through cervical mucus and fertility of frozen&#8211;thawed ram spermatozoa was examined. In the presence of SP, motility of frozen&#8211;thawed spermatozoa was better (P&#60;0.001) and there were more uncapacitated and less acrosome-reacted cells in comparison with controls (P&#60;0.001). Frozen&#8211;thawed spermatozoa were also better able to penetrate cervical mucus after addition of SP. Addition of SP increased the percentage of ewes pregnant after insemination of frozen&#8211;thawed (39/94, 41.5% v. 51/92, 55.4%; P&#60;0.05) but not fresh spermatozoa (34/55, 61.8% v. 42/58, 72.4% for 0 v. 30% SP in the resuspension medium). Moreover, SP improved pregnancy rates after cervical (14/50; 28% v. 25/49; 51%; P&#60;0.05) but not intrauterine insemination (25/44; 56.8 v. 26/43; 60.5%) with frozen&#8211;thawed spermatozoa. In a second experiment, pregnancy rates were 30/45 (66.7%), 9/37 (24.3%) and 24/40 (60.0%) for ewes inseminated with frozen&#8211;thawed spermatozoa in the uterus (control), cervix without SP and cervix after supplementation with SP, respectively (P&#60;0.01 for unsupplemented v. supplemented spermatozoa). These experiments demonstrate that impaired function of cryopreserved spermatozoa can be overcome by addition of SP, resulting in normal fertility after cervical AI. 
