ARS | Publication request: A PROTOCOL FOR THE SHORT-TERM STORAGE OF ATLANTIC STURGEON SEMEN

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: September 15, 2009
Publication Date: March 1, 2010
Citation: Woods, III, L.C., Dorsey, K., Mohler, J., Guthrie, H.D., Welch, G.R. 2010. A PROTOCOL FOR THE SHORT-TERM STORAGE OF ATLANTIC STURGEON SEMEN. Meeting Abstract.

Technical Abstract: Short-term, liquid-phase storage trials were conducted in 2009 on Atlantic sturgeon semen obtained from captive males, held at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Fish Technology Center and wild males, collected ripe on the spawning grounds from the Hudson River. Semen samples collected, chilled and shipped overnight to the University of Maryland’s Crane Aquaculture Facility where they were then stored under refrigeration (4 + 1oC) in treatments consisting of different gaseous environments and experimental diluents. A battery of four quantitative analyses of gamete quality were performed on the day the samples arrived at the lab (pre-treatment) and then every odd day, for 21 days. Sperm quality parameters evaluated included: viability, motion analysis, curvilinear velocity and cellular ATP levels. Higher gamete quality was observed in wild sturgeon semen than in captive sturgeon semen. Significantly higher gamete quality was maintained over the three week storage period, when spermatozoa were diluted and stored in the presence of oxygen, for both the wild and captive sturgeon populations. The results of these studies should allow for better management of increasingly scarce Atlantic sturgeon gametes, necessary for culturists to generate recruits for shrinking Atlantic sturgeon populations. It is hoped that these results may also prove useful as initial cryopreservation protocols for the Atlantic sturgeon spermatozoa are developed.