Morphological studies of cryopreserved Toda buffalo spermatozoa by CASA

Toda buffaloes are the endangered species of the Nilgiri Hills of South India. Successful attempts have been made in cryopreservation of semen of Toda bulls. Thawed semen samples from Toda buffalo bulls were used to analyze the spermatozoal morphometry by Computer assisted semen analyzer (CASA). Head length (major axis), width (minor axis), area, perimeter, elongation and tail length were the morphometrical characteristics measured. The mean (±SE) length, width, area, perimeter, elongation percentage and tail length were 7.38±0.02 µm, 4.68±0.02 µm, 28.53±0.17 µm2 , 20.32±0.19 µm, 62.95±0.22% and 52.93±0.41 µm respectively. Overall spermatozoal abnormality was 30.75% and coiled tail was the most common (50.49%) abnormality. The spermatozoal morphometry reported in this study may form a preliminary data in Toda buffalo semen analysis and helps for comparison with other breeds and can complement sperm motility assessment.