Electroejaculation in Llama (Lama glama)

DIRECTOR A; GIULIANO SM; TRASORRAS VL; CARRETERO MI; PINTO MR; MIRAGAYA MH

Journal of Camel Practise and Reserch

Camel Publising House

Lugar: Bikaner-334001; Año: 2007 vol. 14 p. 203 - 206

It has become necessary toimplement different semen collection techniques for those males of domestic or wild South American Camelids that do not respond to collection with artificial vagina, to be able to evaluate the reproductive aptitude in these species. The objective of this study was to repeatedly obtain complete, good quality ejaculates from Lama glama using electroejaculation. Semen was collected from 11 males using electroejaculation which was carried out under general anesthesia, with the voltage being increased a.2 V starting at 2 V and ending at 10 V. Each ejaculate was evaluated macroscopically (volume and colour) and microscopically: individual sperm motility, sperm concentration, sperm membrane function, live sperm and sperm morphology. Semen was collected from 100% of the males. A total of 106 semen collections were carried out, obtaining 96 complete good quality ejaculates (ejaculates with sperm and not contaminated with urine). Seminal characteristics were the following (mean ± standard deviation): volume (ml) 2.91 ± 1.33; sperm concentration (106 spermatozoa/ml) 39.43 ± 33.58; total sperm motility (%) 28.1 ± 25.42; live sperm (%) 59.70 ± 16.11; sperm with functional membranes (%) 35.78 ± 14.1; normal spermatozoa (%) 61.95 ± 19.71. In conclusion, our results indicated that it is possible to obtain complete, good quality ejaculates in llamas using electroejaculation as the semen collection methods.