As many as seven 500-kg-Belgian-Blue-Crossbreed-bulls aged four years old were kept in a mooring cage and served with forage and concentrate (CP 16%) at 10% and 3% to the body weight, respectively. There were also added some egg yolk citrate diluent of 2.9% (v/v), Sodium citrate dihydrate buffer, 100 mL of distilled water, and an egg yolk mixture to a proportion of 20% egg yolk 8% (v/v) glycerol (Merck, Germany), penicillin (1,000 IU/mL), and streptomycin (1,000 mg/mL). Sperm was diluted to 50 million/mL and treated with lycopene extract levels of 0% (control), 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% in a diluent, equilibrated at the temperature of 5°C for 4 hours, packed in 0.25 ml straw, and refrozen into liquid nitrogen vapor about 5 cm above the liquid nitrogen surface for 10 minutes. Freezing was run by immersing the forage in liquid nitrogen for 24 hours before the post-thawing examination. Results showed that spermatozoa diluted with egg yolk citrate supplemented with 3% lycopene (P3) had better quality than that found in the other four treatments, namely motility before freezing (70.86%) and post thawing (53.00%); viability before freezing (76.00%) and post thawing (60. 14%); plasma membrane integrity before freezing (71.29%) and post thawing (59.86%); and also showed the lowest abnormality level before freezing and post-thawing, (17.29%) and (24.14%), respectively.
Keywords | Spermatozoa, Belgian blue crossbreed, Egg yolk citrate, Lycopene