Alpaca research at Sydney University has been progressing at
a great rate. Our first progress report to RIRDC has been received
with praise.
We’re pleased to announce that Dr. Jeff Downing has joined
the team. Dr. Downing holds a Diploma of Agriculture from Charles
Stuart University, BSc and PhD from Macquarie University. He is
currently a lecturer in the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University
of Sydney. His research interests have concentrated on various
aspects of animal reproductive and stress physiology. The interaction
between nutrition, ovarian follicle development and ovulation
rate in ewes has been central to much of his research interests
as has been the manipulation of ovulation rate using steroid immunization
and hormone treatments. He has acquired extensive expert skills
in reproductive endocrinology; nutrition-reproduction interactions;
oocyte maturation and advanced surgical skills becoming proficient
in performing ovarian, utero-ovarian and adrenal autotransplants
in sheep. Procedures such as embryo collection and transfer and
intrauterine AI have been routine operations. He has published
52 refereed papers and 56 conference papers.
The research team comprises Professors Gareth Evans and Chis
Maxwell, Drs. Jeff Downing and Katherine Morton, and two honours
students (starting in 2006), Ms. Zamira Gibson, and Ms. Sarah
Wilson. Unfortunately, Jorge Reyna (PhD student) resigned from
the University in December.
Our progress to date includes establishing a herd of males at
Camden. The males are being trained for semen collection and the
preliminary results are encouraging. During the on-farm collection
and the training period, three sequential ejaculates were obtained
from males (n=10) to examine the variability between males and
ejaculates. Ejaculate volume (Figure 1), sperm concentration (Figure
2) and sperm motility (Figure 3) were highly variable between
males and between ejaculates. Interestingly, some males did not
produce any semen despite mating with the mannequin indicating
that further improvements to the collection technique were required.
Figure 1. Semen volume
in three consecutive ejaculates during repeated semen collection
from alpaca males (n=10).
Figure 2. Sperm concentration
in three consecutive ejaculates during repeated semen collection
from alpaca males.
Figure 3. Sperm motility
of three consecutive ejaculates during repeated semen collection
from alpaca males.
A high variation in the parameters of alpaca ejaculates has been
reported previously, and the project is continuing to establish
the basic parameters for alpaca ejaculates. The following results
are based on 55 ejaculates. Results are presented as mean±s.e.m.
(range)
| Mating length (mins) |
18.14±1.27 |
range |
4-43 mins |
| Ejaculate volume (mL) |
1.867±0.2 |
range |
0.0-8.0 mL |
| Motility (%) |
44.9±4.43 |
range |
0.0-80 % |
| Concentration (x 106 mL-1) |
71.2±9.6 |
range |
0.0-220 |
Considerable progress has been made in the development
of laboratory and in vitro tests for alpaca sperm. Basic laboratory
handling procedures, staining protocols and in vitro tests are
paramount to all experimental work. We have commenced research
to determine the appropriate handling medium for alpaca sperm,
modified protocols for percoll centrifugation (a process by which
live sperm are separated from dead sperm), and fluorescent staining
for determining alpaca sperm viability and acrosome integrity
(the acrosome is a membrane encasing the head of the sperm that
has an integral role in fertilisation).
