Advanced semen analysis

The evaluation of stallion semen and sperm is an integral part of evaluating horse subfertility and determining a stallion’s potential as a breeding prospect. Although semen evaluation is an important part of a stallion’s breeding potential, good sperm quality is necessary, but not sufficient for fertility. This concept is important as a semen evaluation is often performed as a separate ‘stand-alone test’ with little knowledge of the limitations that may be imposed by the mare or management. Currently, there are many semen tests, most of which are sperm quality tests. Although there have been many new ‘sperm tests’ introduced relatively recently few are validated regarding their relationship to fertility. The clinician should be cautious in promoting tests unless interpretation of the results relative to fertility can be presented to the client. These tests have the capability, if performed correctly, to describe the sperm quality of an individual sample and allow the clinician to determine how these results may affect fertility. It cannot be assumed that a ‘low’ sperm test result is the cause of subfertility if the relationship of the test results to fertility have not actually been determined ...