RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results presented in table 1 show that at 40-41°C the sper-
matozoa are inactivated in normal saline, unbuffered Ringer, in the
buffered media except bicarbonate Ringer and in infundibulum secre-
tion, Munro (3) found that they are also inactivated in Milovanov's
and Baker's solutions and in magnum as well as infundibulum '"juice'".
Considering the variety of media in which inactivation occurs, it
would appear to be essentially a temperature effect. It is counter-
acted by bicarbonate, however. When HCO, is added to these media
they support motility very well at this %emperature, except when.
phosphate is present. In the presence of phosphate, even when HCO>
is also present, the spermatozoa are immotile at 40°C. Similar re-
sults on the effect of phosphate were reported by Ogasaware & Lorenz
(5). In all cases reactivation occurred, after 1-2 minutes, on
cooling below 39°C.

Traibiile ¥

Effect of temperature on cock sperm motility
in various media
Medium Motility
at 40-41°C

 

saline 0.9% -
Ringer, unbuffered ~
wrsksiglycine -
o + M/15 phosphate -
! + TRIS-maleate
" + HCOB
"+ HCO?, + phosphate
infundibului secretion
seminal plasma
egg white
poly-GA + Ringer + HCOz
2 + Ringer -

+ + + 10

 

Besides in bicarbonate containing media, inactivation is pre-
vented in seminal plasma, egg white, uterine fluid and blood serum
of the fowl (3). Whether HCOE or some other factor is responsible
for preventing the temperature inactivation in these media has not
been determined.