The influence of royal jelly on boar sperm motility, vitality and pH

The purpose of this master thesis is to evaluate the impact of royal jelly on boar spermatozoa motility, vitality and pH. The tests were concluded in the year 2018 at the breeding on boar sperm prepare facility “X” and “LUHS VA” Animal Reproduction Laboratory. The test was concluded with 11 sperm doses from which a total of 396 samples were tested. One ejaculated sperm dose was divided into four tubes, which were added with a different concentration of royal jelly: 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 %. Primary testing of sperm pH levels, spermatozoa motility, vitality, spermatozoa dose concentration levels and morphological spermatozoa tests were done in Animal Reproduction Laboratory. Later on, doses were divided into two equal parts from which one group was stored in a cooling thermostat in a 16±0.5 oC temperature. The other group was put in a fridge of 4±0.5 oC temperature. Both of them were tested for 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours. Spermatozoa motility testing was done subjectively (using microscopy) and objectively (using computer sperm motility evaluation program SCA), pH test was made (using electronic pH-meter), the vitality tests were made as well (using eosin-nigrosin dye). After the 48 hour period compared to the control group, the biggest spermatozoa motility was in samples from the cooling thermostat 16±0.5 oC temperature with 0.5 % of royal jelly concentration by using microscopy (77.82 ± 7.53 %.; p ≥ 0.05). By objective evaluation, royal jelly did not have a significant effect. After the 24, 48, 96 hour period compared to the control groups, the largest spermatozoa vitality was found in samples held in a cooling thermostat at 16±0.5 oC temperature with 1 % royal jelly concentration (92.55 ± 4.41 %, 92.18 ± 3.03 %, 87.64 ± 4.61 %, respectively (p ≥ 0.05)). After the 96 hours compared to the group with 2 % of royal jelly concentration, the most change in sperm pH levels was in samples from the fridge with 4±0.5 oC temperature and the highest pH level after the 96 hour period was with 0 % royal jelly concentration (8.12 ± 0.10; p ≤ 0.05). After the 24 hour period compared to control group, the lowest sperm pH was in samples from the cooling thermostat 16±0.5 oC temperature with 2 % of royal jelly concentration (7.16 ± 0.09; p ≤ 0.05)

The Effect of royal jelly on boar sperm viability and motility during liquid storage for 96 hours

The current study was carried out to investigate the protective effects of royal jelly supplementation on sperm motility, viability and pH value during the liquid storage of boar semen at 16 °C and 4 °C, at various periods of time (0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h). Semen samples were collected from 11 boars, diluted with a long-term extender and supplemented with different concentration of royal jelly (0%, 0.5%, 1% and 2%) at a final concentration of 50 × 106 sperm/ml. In the laboratory, the semen was assessed for sperm morphology, viability (eosin-nigrosin staining), subjective motility and objective sperm motility by sperm class analyzer. In total, 396 tests for sperm viability and motility were performed. The longer storage time and the lower incubation temperature showed lower sperm motility and viability results. The results showed that royal jelly supplementation at 1% concentrations protected the functionality of the sperm plasma membrane during the liquid storage time of 96 h at 16 °C. Sperm subjective and objective motility results in samples stored at 4 °C decreased with higher royal jelly concentrations and longer storage time, and differ significantly from the results in samples stored at 16 °C (P < 0.05). Our data showed that royal jelly supplementation at lower concentrations can improve boar semen motility and viability parameters during liquid storage at 16 °C for 96 h