This summary has been extracted from the application. A copy of the student’s Abstract/Thesis has not been received.
The proposed research involves the comprehensive in vitro assessment of semen (~100 unique ejaculates) destined for commercial artificial insemination programs. Numerous insemination programs across multiple regions will be used to build a database linked to the fertility results of thousands of inseminations. Basic as well as novel and advanced semen assessment techniques will be employed to investigate factors which may be linked to the fertility of ram spermatozoa following laparoscopic artificial insemination. Computer assisted sperm analysis, a variety of flow cytometric assays (eg oxidative status, DNA integrity, membrane disorder), proteomic assessment and possibly functional assays related to cell- cell interactions with the female reproductive tract and immune cells will all be used to investigate the potential function and fertility of each sample. These results will be correlated with pregnancy scanning outcomes in each program and the results matched back to each individual ejaculate.