Characteristics of urethral and epididymal semen collected from domestic cats--A retrospective study of 214 cases.

This study was designed to describe and compare basic semen characteristics and sperm motility parameters obtained via computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) in feline semen collected from the urethra and epididymis, on the basis of large, unselected population of domestic cats. The semen collected from 214 males was subjected for routine semen assessment and CASA evaluation. Semen collected by urethral catheterization (CT) and by epididymal slicing (EP) has comparable characteristics according to total sperm count (47.7 ± 42.1 and 52.9 ± 45.0), subjective motility (71.1 ± 17.0 and 69.3 ± 13.9), viability (74.9 ± 13.4 and 76.7 ± 10.6), and morphology (52.6 ± 19.0 and 47.2 ± 17.4). The study of a large feline population confirmed a high incidence of teratospermy in cats, which negatively affects sperm motility parameters assessed by CASA. A lack of a correlation between CT and EP semen for total sperm count and viability, as well as occasional gross differences between the morphology of CT and EP semen of the same cat suggests that many factors may affect sperm cells, and the fertility and/or infertility of patients should not be assessed after examining only one sample. Additionally, technical problems with assessment of EP samples (understated results) suggest that CT semen is more appropriate for an analysis by CASA than EP.