Effects of voltage and order of voltage application on seminal characteristics of electroejaculates of the domestic cat.

Two experiments were performed to determine the effects of voltage and order of voltage application on the volume and number of spermatozoa of electroejaculates collected sequentially from the domestic cat. An electro-ejaculate was defined as the seminal fluid and spermatozoa obtained during the application of 60 electrical stimuli. Four electroejaculates were obtained from each cat once a week for 4 weeks. In experiment 1, a stepwise increase in voltage (1, 2, 4, and 8 V) was used in a factorial design to obtain successive electroejaculates from 9 cats. The volume of electroejaculate was not affected by cat, voltage, or week of collection (P greater than 0.05) and the interactions cat X voltage and week of collection X voltage also were not significant (P greater than 0.05). Number of spermatozoa of electroejaculates was affected by cat (P less than 0.001) and voltage (P less than 0.025), and the interaction cat X voltage also was significant (P less than 0.001). The number of spermatozoa of electroejaculates was not affected by week of collection (P greater than 0.05), and the interaction week of collection X voltage also was not significant (P greater than 0.05). The number of spermatozoa in electroejaculates collected with 4 or 8 V were greater (P less than 0.05) than the number of spermatozoa in electroejaculates collected with 1 or 2 V. Stimulation with 8 V resulted in urine contamination of some electroejaculates. In experiment 2, a latin square design was used to determine the effects of voltage (1, 2, 4, and 6 V), electroejaculate sequence, and order of the 4 voltages in the sequence on seminal characteristics of electroejaculates from 8 cats. Volume of electroejaculate was not affected by cat, voltage, order of voltages, electroejaculate sequence, or week of collection (P greater than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)