Sperm DNA fragmentation in a random sample of the Spanish boar livestock

A collection of 180 chilled boar semen samples, randomly chosen from stocks currently used for routine characterization of standard seminal quality, were studied for DNA fragmentation status using the sperm chromatin dispersion test and the DNA fragmentation index (DFI: percent of abnormal cell versus normal cells for DNA fragmentation) was determined. Values for sperm motility, acrosome status, coiled tails and abnormal head morphology, including presence and position of cytoplasmic droplets were also obtained. The DFI in the whole sample presented a wide range of variation with values oscillating between practically 0% and 47.95% and do not fit to a normal distribution. The most frequent classes (83.3%) presented a DFI lower than a 5%. Significant correlations between sperm DNA fragmentation and sperm motility, acrosome status, frequency of distal droplets, coiled tails and abnormal head morphology, were not observed. However, the presence of proximal cytoplasmic droplets showed a significant correlation with the level of DNA fragmentation observed in the ejaculated spermatozoa. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.