Evaluation of a New Method and Diagnostic Test in Semen Analysis

Sperm concentration is an important parameter affecting fertility. Animal species of agricultural interest are mainly produced by artificial insemination (AI) which contributes highly to the development of worldwide swine production, making the impact of the male in reproductive efficiency of the pig herds more crucial (Jounala et al., 1998). The efficiency of AI (fertility rate and prolificacy) is directly dependent on the quality of semen doses and on the number of spermatozoa used for insemination (Camus et al., 2011). In commercial farms, routine examination of boar semen is performed aiming to predict the male’s fertility. Evaluation of concentration is crucial to adapt dilution rate and to optimize sperm concentration which will directly impact fertility performance. In the first part of a present chapter we address the basic concepts of a method comparison study and present an example of a method comparison experiment concerning determination of sperm concentration. Various laboratory methods techniques are used to evaluate sperm quality, such as sperm concentration, motility, viability, and morphology. However, there is no single semen assay that provides complete information about semen quality (Holt & Medrano, 1997; Johnson et al., 2000; Liu & Baker, 2002). Studies in domestic animals showed that these semen characteristics were often not significantly correlated to fertility, while the most valid assessment of boar semen quality is to obtain viable pregnancies and normal offspring following AI (Tsakmakidis et al., 2010). Since fertilization is a complex process involving a huge number of events, fertility research must not only device more predictive laboratory tests, but also properly combine different assays aiming to predict male fertilizing ability, as spermatozoa should satisfy many requirements for successful fertilization (QuinteroMoreno et al., 2004). Assessment of metabolic status of spermatozoa could provide a useful tool for evaluation of semen quality, because sufficient metabolism for energy production is one of the several attributes that a sperm must posses to fertilize an oocyte. In the second part of this chapter developing and diagnostic evaluation of a spectrophotometric application of the resazurin reduction assay will be presented. Learning objectives of a chapter are to:  Investigate repeatability in continuous data