QUESTIONS

1. What's the difference between Aspermia & Azoospermia?
    
2. List as many drugs as you can think of that disrupt sperm production.
    
3. Define:
   
   a) Oligozoospermia
   
   b) Asethenozoospermia
   
   c) Teratospermia
    
4. What would anyone want to run an alkaline Phosphatase level on semen?
    
5. How long does spermatogenesis take in the dog?
    
6. If you biopsy a testicle, do you just put the sample in 10% formalin or do you need a special medium?
    
7. Why might one run an FSH level on an infertile male dog?
    
8. Semen evaluation often includes a bacterial culture.  How many bacteria are too many?
    
9. To culture for mycoplasma, what special steps are needed for shipping?
    
10. What percentage of sperm should have progressive motility in a normal sample?
     
11. What is the difference between primary & secondary morphological abnormalities?
     
12. What is the  normal K9 sperm count?
    
    
    
    
     

ANSWERS

1. Aspermia is the lack of sperm in ejaculate due to ejaculatory dysfunction. (He's inexperienced, he got scared in the middle, he didn't get his penis out of his sheath all the way, or there is actually a bizarre condition called "complete retrograde ejaculation" where the ejaclation goes backwards & the sperm end up in the urinary bladder. This last strange sounding thing is not unusual w/electroejaculation.
   
   Azoospermia = lack of sperm after a normal ejaculation
   
   
   
   
    
2. Here's my list:
   
   Any anti-neoplastic drug
   
   Hormones that disrupt the hypothalamic gonadal axis (pred, androgens, estrogens)
   
   Spironolactone - causes testicular tumors in the rat plus has some feminizing effects. In humans it causes gynecomastia and inability to maintain/achieve erection.
   
   Cimetidine - causes reversible impotence at least in humans.
   
   
   
   
    
3. a) Oligospermia = lower than normal numbers of sperm
   
   b) Asethenozoospermia= lots of sperm that don't show progressive motility
   
   c) Teratospermia= lots of sperm w/morphological defects
   
   
   
   
    
4. If there is an obstruction (sperm granuloma) in the epididymus, you will see no sperm in the ejaculate. When you see no sperm, you won't know if he didn't make any or if their passage is blocked.  One way to test is to assay for epididymal markers. If there aren't any, then there is an obstruction. Carnitine is an epididymal marker & so is ALP. ALP is much easier to assay since we do it everyday w/blood.  There is a ton of ALP in semen so it will need dilution. A normal level is 5000-40,000 U/L.
   
   
   
   
    
5. Spermatogenesis takes 62 days in the dog.
   
   
   
   
    
6. Do not put testicular tissue in formalin; you will get artifacts. Use Bouin's or Zenker's fixative.
   
   
   
   
    
7. If there is no sperm in the ejaculate, one  reason might be a hormone problem. The number of sperm in a biopsy seems to correlate well w/the FSH level. The fewer  the sperm, the higher the FSH level.  Because of hormonal variation through the day you will need at least 3 samples 20-30 minutes apart. Not many labs will run this test.
   
   
   
   
    
8. >10,000 bacteria per ml is too many.
   
   
   
   
    
9. To culture for mycoplasma, you will either need to freeze the sample or send it to be delivered in 24 hours in Amies transport medium
   
   
   
   
    
10. Normal progressive motility should be at least 70%.
    
    
    
    
     
11. Primary abnormalities come from developmental errors that occured in the testis.  (coiled tail, double heads)  Secondary abnormalities occur during sperm transport. (broken tails, broken heads). There should be < 20% morphological abnormalities of any kind.
    
    
    
    
     
12. Normal sperm count is 300 million- 2 billion sperm (in 1-30 cc ejaculate)