Are there any tricks to counting? I set microscope on 400X, dilute semen 4-1 so I can see 20-30 sperm But the little boogers are fast, they shoot across the view on the slide and are out of site, now the 2 or 3 dead ones are easy to count. I want to extend the semen by calculation using progressively motile sperm % rather than total. I really want to learn how to do this and be good at it. I keep practicing but I feel I'm kind of guessing a little. I did notice that when I printed out the calculations it did say "subjective" under "Progressive Motility %". Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Another question those hand held scopes, how good are they? I'm guessing you can't use a hemocytometer slide with it, the slide doesn't look like it will fit.
You've pretty much described the technique. Now it's just practice, practice, practice! If you're still having a hard time tracking individual sperm, dilute it some more so you're looking at fewer sperm.
Be hard on the progressive motility aspect. A progressively motile sperm is defined as one that is travelling 75% or greater in a straight line. In other words if it were to travel 4 inches, it would not deviate from that straight line by more than 1 inch. That's pretty straight! You would be surprised if you started using CASA (computer assisted semen analysis) just how few stallions have progressive motility greater than 50%! The average PM in a study (don't have the citation in front of me, sorry!) was I think about 53%. I always chuckle when I hear people saying their stallion has "80% progressive motility"!!!!
As far as the hand-held 'scopes, there are a variety out there, so some may work for a hemacytometer, but I am not familiar with any of them particularly, so really cannot comment.
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