Sarcouncil Journal of Medicine and Surgery

Abstract: Background: In contrast with ejaculate collection generally capturing a complete spectrum of spermatozoa at once at the time of peak collection, epididymal spermatozoa retrieved from the cauda epididymis of slaughtered rams represent a practical, low-cost, and invaluable resource to those seeking to assess sperm quality or preserve germplasm in situations where its conventional harvest is impractical. Although a few studies on epididymal sperm characteristics in matured indigenous Iraqi rams provided data on seasonal variation, a comprehensive evaluation or reference material of such sperm characteristics remain limited. Objectives: evaluate testicular size, epididymal sperm characteristics such as concentration, motility, viability, morphology, plasma membrane integrity and acrosome integrity of slaughtered Iraqi rams during the breeding season, to investigate correlations between with animal, testicular and sperm-quality parameters. Materials and Methods: This study was performed as descriptive study at University of Al-Qasim Green, Iraq; reproductive tracts for 50 sexually matured Iraqi rams were collected between April and July 2026. Slicing technique was used to recover epididymal spermatozoa from the cauda epididymis. Sperm concentration was measured using a spectrophotometer; sperm motility using a microscope; viability and morphology was performed using Eosin–Nigrosin staining; plasma membrane integrity (PMI) was analyzed using the hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST); and acrosome integrity was assessed using Giemsa staining. Experimental testis was gonadal weight, gonadal length, gonadal width for each testis. Analysis was performed using SPSS -descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation -P < 0.05. Results: The rams had a mean age, body weight and body condition score (BCS) of 3.50 ± 1.11 years, 60.89 ± 8.53 kg and 3.40 ± 0.58, respectively. Mean (±SD) right and left testicular weights were 196.95 ± 18.20 g and 189.73 ± 17.26 g, respectively, mean epididymal sperm concentration was 590.50 ± 104.14 million/mL, and total and progressive motility were 79.06 ± 8.35% and 64.93 ± 8.71%, respectively. The sperm viability (%), normal morphology (%), HOST positive response (%) and intact acrosome (%) were found to be 82.00 ± 7.24%, 83.50 ± 6.62%, 81.00 ± 7.52% and 82.50 ± 6.85%, respectively. The left testis was correlated with sperm concentration (r = 0.882; P < 0.001) and total motility (r = 0.929; P < 0.001); the right testis was highly significantly correlated with sperm concentration (r = 0.691; P < 0.001), total motility (r = 0.674; P < 0.001), viability (r = 0.360; P = 0.0103), and normal morphology (r = 0.550; P < 0.001). Sperm concentration did not correlate significantly with age and body weight. Conclusion: The results show that the viability, motility, morphology and integrity of the epididymal spermatozoa recovered from slaughtered Iraqi rams in their breeding season appears to be satisfactory and the testicular biometric parameters (weight, length and width) of a testis are closely correlated with sperm quality, denoting testicular biometry to be a good adjunctive element for ram selection as genetic salvage or breeding soundness.