Sperm analysis of West Indian manatee by University of Florida Aquatic Animal Health Program team using SCA® CASA System Fig. 1: West Indian manatee from Florida. Modified from National Geographic. The West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus spp.) is a large herbivorous mammalian species (average length 3 meter and weight 500 [...]
Not of Mice and Men but Rat sperm morphology quantified In a previous Microptic blog in 2015, we reported on the SCA TOX system of Microptic and its uses in reproductive toxicology testing. It was further indicated that tailor made modules exist for sperm motility, vitality, fragmentation and that in principle it [...]
Sperm functionality: Importance in assessing sperm quality, fertilization success and live birth outcome The WHO5 manual (2010) for semen analysis in 2010 sparked a great deal of debate. Perhaps the most important aspects emerging from the debate was that specific “single value” cut-off points are not useful to distinguish between “good and [...]
Major new role players in the clinical setting using CASA technology for sperm quality assessment in Africa In most of Southern Africa and in Scandinavia there has long been a history of resistance to the use of Computer Aided Sperm Analysis (CASA) in the clinical/IVF laboratory setting. This is partly understandable since [...]
Marriage of WHO5 and sperm functionality review and debate Since the appearance of the semen analysis manual of the World Health Organization in 2010 (WHO5), there has been many critical debates about its value and use. In a recent review by Van der Horst and Du Plessis (2017) most of these aspects [...]
Three SCA upgrades and training to Germplasm, Conservation and Reproductive Biotechnologies (GCRB) Laboratory, Agricultural Research Council (ARC), Irene, Pretoria Figure 1: The ARC-GCRB personnel. The ARC-GCRB laboratories based in Pretoria-Irene, is well known for its reproductive biology research on indigenous South African domestic animals. There are dozens of unique indigenous [...]
Visit by Microptic Biologist to collaborator laboratory in Cape Town, South Africa for training and discussions Prof van der Horst and Dr Medarde in front of new Comparative Spermatology Laboratory during opening ceremony. Microptic SL in Barcelona expanded its staff and activities greatly in the last year and appointed a [...]
The importance of insect sperm: The black soldier fly The biodiversity and general importance of insects are not generally appreciated. Very few people realize that insects represent about 95% of the Animal Kingdom (AK). In other words all other animal species such as invertebrates including sponges, oysters, mussels, sea urchins, segmented worms, [...]
BrightVit: a new kit for vitality in brightfield assessment History, physiological basis, current use and importance Fig. 1: Greek Goddess of dawn, Eos (eosin derivation) The word “vitality” (later “viability”) comes from the late 16th century Latin vitalitas which means strong and active, has energy. In sperm biology vitality has [...]
Importance of microscopy for cell biologists in general and spermatologists specifically Part 2: Specialized microscopic techniques for sperm In the second blog on Microscopy, I indicated that brightfield microscopy, positive and negative phase microscopy and fluorescence microscopy are now routinely used for CASA analysis. Before proceeding to a more detailed discussion of fluorescence microscopy I [...]
