Similarities and differences between the sperm quality index and sperm mobility index of broiler breeder semen.

The sperm quality index (SQI) and sperm mobility index (SMI) both predict sperm motility. Previous research was conducted comparing the SMI with the SQI; however, semen was diluted improperly for the SQI (40-fold). For an accurate comparison, semen must be diluted 10-fold for the SQI. Therefore, the overall objective of this study, utilizing 4 experiments, was to examine the relationship of the SQI with the SMI when: 1) active, heat-inactivated, and boiled sperm were incubated and analyzed over 60 min, 2) motile and immotile sperm were combined, 3) dead sperm (boiled or frozen) and live sperm were combined, and 4) sperm were rendered immotile by adding Zn. In experiment 1, the SQI was stable throughout incubation for active sperm and zero for heat-inactivated and boiled sperm. The SMI from active sperm steadily increased over incubation. However, the SMI from heat-inactivated sperm increased drastically resulting in values higher than active sperm after 35 min of incubation. The SMI from active sperm was higher than boiled sperm throughout incubation. For experiment 2, a cubic increase in the SQI occurred as active sperm increased from 0 to 100%. However, there was no difference in SMI readings until samples contained 80% active sperm. In experiment 3, for both boiled and frozen sperm, as the percentage of viable sperm increased, there was a logarithmic increase in the SQI. The SMI values were similar for 0 and 100% viable sperm when using boiled sperm, and all SMI readings were similar to 0% viable for frozen sperm. For experiment 4, both the SQI and SMI values from semen incubated with Zn were lower than that of saline. The SQI from sperm incubated in saline was higher than that of Zn throughout incubation, yet there were no differences in SMI values after 90 min of incubation. In conclusion, both the SQI and SMI of sperm decrease in response to Zn. However, it appears that immotile and dead sperm are capable of increasing SMI values but not SQI values.