Penetration of zona-free hamster ova as a test to assess fertilizing ability of bull sperm after frozen storage

Frozen stored sperm samples of two Holstein bulls (A and B) were compared for their abilities to interact with zona-free hamster ova. The percentage of hamster vitelli interacting with sperm from Bull A was significantly higher than that interacting with sperm from Bull B (94.5% vs. 68.2%, P<0.01), and these results were in good agreement with 60 day non-return data for the same months (68.2% for Bull A vs. 64.3% for Bull B). Sperm from Bull A also excelled in average numbers attached to vitelli, and in average numbers of sperm penetrated into the zona-free hamster ova. However, of the penetrated vitelli, sperm of Bull B resulted in more pronuclei. In these experiments the percentage of progressively motile sperm at insemination was highly correlated with the percentage of vitelli interacting with sperm. The percentages and numbers of sperm cells with intact acrosomes were significantly correlated with the average number of sperm attached per vitellus. These observations encourage further development of this test for assessing sperm fertilizing ability.