The Effect of Different Levels of Lycopene in Egg Yolk Citrate Extenders on Post-Thawed Semen Qualities of Belgian Blue Crossbreed Bull

As many as seven 500-kg-Belgian-Blue-Crossbreed-bulls aged four years old were kept in a mooring cage and served with forage and concentrate (CP 16) at 10 and 3 to the body weight, respectively. There were also added some egg yolk citrate diluent of 2.9 (v/v), Sodium citrate dihydrate buffer, 100 mL of distilled water, and an egg yolk mixture to a proportion of 20 egg yolk 8 (v/v) glycerol (Merck, Germany), penicillin (1,000 IU/mL), and streptomycin (1,000 mg/mL). Sperm was diluted to 50 million/mL and treated with lycopene extract levels of 0 (control), 1, 2, 3, and 4 in a diluent, equilibrated at the temperature of 5°C for 4 hours, packed in 0.25 ml straw, and refrozen into liquid nitrogen vapor about 5 cm above the liquid nitrogen surface for 10 minutes. Freezing was run by immersing the forage in liquid nitrogen for 24 hours before the post-thawing examination. Results showed that spermatozoa diluted with egg yolk citrate supplemented with 3 lycopene (P3) had better quality than that found in the other four treatments, namely motility before freezing (70.86) and post thawing (53.00); viability before freezing (76.00) and post thawing (60. 14); plasma membrane integrity before freezing (71.29) and post thawing (59.86); and also showed the lowest abnormality level before freezing and post-thawing, (17.29) and (24.14), respectively. © 2023 by the authors. Licensee ResearchersLinks Ltd, England, UK.