Influence of anaesthetic drugs on the epididymal sperm quality in domestic cats

The present study investigated the effect of different anaesthetic agents commonly used in cats on the fresh and frozen-thawed epididymal sperm. Seventeen male domestic cats were castrated using pentobarbital, ketamine HCl or isoflurane. Sperm samples were recovered from epididymides and evaluated before and after freezing, determining the vigor, motility, morphology, acrosome status, sperm viability and functional membrane integrity. Fresh epididymal sperm was influenced by the drugs used, noting that motility features, i.e. vigor (p ≤ 0.05) and progressive motility (p ≤ 0.05), were higher for the inhalation anaesthetic while the others did not showed statistical differences. In frozen-thawed sperm samples, cats treated with barbiturics showed lower values for acrosome status (p ≤ 0.05) and integrity and functionality of membrane (p ≤ 0.05 and p ≤ 0.01, respectively) than in the others groups. Results suggested that drugs used for castration in cats could affect the sperm quality and this should be considered when implementing sperm cryopreservation in the feline.