Semen Quality and Artificial Insemination Efficacy Using Sericin-Silica-Phosphate-CuO Hydrogel in Thin-tailed Sheep

Artificial Insemination (AI) in livestock is increasingly demanded because it greatly affects the productivity and quality of livestock. AI should be supported by advanced material chemistry, especially organic-inorganic hybrid biomaterials. We aimed to produce a prototype of renewable advanced biomaterial technology in the form of Sericin-Silica-Phosphate (SER-SI-PO) hydrogel reinforced with Copper Nanoparticles (CuNPs) and its application in AI. The testing of the SER-SI-PO-CuO hydrogel prototype design is to enrich the semen diluent in AI technology on experimental sheep in a sheep-goat pen at the Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Universitas PGRI Kanjuruhan Malang so that a prototype of SER-SI-PO-CuO hydrogel that has been tested in a relevant environment is obtained. Semen was obtained from a 2-year-old thin-tailed male sheep of 30 kg. We used a completely randomized factorial design consisting of two factors (the diluent and the storage time factors). The diluent factor consisted of (A) eggyolk tris amino methane diluent at 5°C, (B) egg yolk tris aminomethanediluent at room temperature, (C) egg yolk tris amino methane diluent plus SER-SI-PO-CuO (1% w/v) at 5°C, (D) egg yolk tris amino methane diluent plus SER-SI-PO-CuO at room temperature. The storage time factor consisted of storage times of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 days. The variables observed were motility, viability, and abnormality. Each AI treatment used15 samples of female sheep ready to mate. The AI success variables include Service per Conception (S/C), Non-Return Rate (NRR), and Conception Rate (CR). Semen quality data was analyzed by two-way ANOVA continued by the Least Significant Difference Test. The results showed that the SER-SI-PO-CuO addition to the diluent of tris amino methane egg yolk using a semen storage ampoule made of nano calcium silico-phosphate biomaterial had a very significant effect (p<0.01) on motility, viability, and abnormalities. The NRR, CR, and S/C values were in the good category. The addition of SER-SI-PO-CuO to the tris amino methane egg yolk diluent increased semen imperishability for up to six days at room temperature and with storage at 5°C for up to seven days, as well as the success of the AI test.