Insulin addition to swine semen diluted and cooled at 15 ºC

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of adding different doses of insulin to swine semen processed and stored at 15 ºC. The experiment used sixteen ejaculates from four commercial breeding pigs, distributed in a randomized block design (ejaculate) with split plot along time (0, 24, 48 and 72 hours of storage) with four treatments (insulin levels - 0.0 4.0 8.0 and 12.0 IU per dose) and 16 repetitions. The experimental unit was made of two insemination doses of 100 mL each, with 3×109 spermatozoids. Insulin used was NPH-human, added at the time of processing the doses. The addition of insulin did not affect motility, sperm viability, the percentage of abnormal cells, the osmotic resistance or the degradation rate of motility in 120 minutes. There was a linear decrease in semen quality over storage time, regardless of insulin levels. The addition of insulin at the mentioned concentrations does not influence the quality of insemination dose in pigs.