Honey or pineapple juice as extender components for Quezon [Philippines] native and Duroc boar semen at different storage temperatures

Computer-assisted semen analyzer (CASA) was used to assess the effectiveness of formulated boar semen extenders supplemented with honey and/or pineapple juice. Four boars (i.e., Duroc = 2 and Quezon = 2) served as semen donors, where four ejaculates from each animal were used in this study. Only samples that passed the preliminary quality evaluation were further analyzed and processed. Semen samples were divided and randomly assigned into one of the 11 treatment groups: (T1) a medium-term commercial extender with antibiotics as positive control, (T2) prepared base extender without sugar and antibiotics as negative control (NC), (T3) NC + 0.5% honey, (T4) NC + 1% honey, (T5) NC + 2% honey, (T6) NC + 0.5% pineapple juice, (T7) NC + 1% pineapple juice, (T8) NC + 2% pineapple juice, (T9) NC + 0.5% mixed (1:1) honey and pineapple juice, (T10) NC + 1% mixed honey and pineapple juice, and (T11) NC + 2% mixed honey and pineapple juice and stored at either low temperature (15–20 deg C) or room temperature (22–25 deg C). Results showed that Quezon native and Duroc boar semen diluted with T1 had a semen shelf life of 48 and 52 h, respectively, which is longer compared to those diluted using other treatments. For percentage (%) slow sperm, significantly lower values were seen from using T5, T6, T7, T9, T10 and T11 than T1 for Quezon boar semen; while T1, T6 and T7 showed significantly lower values than T2 in Duroc boar semen. In terms of sperm morphological parameters, results from all treatments were comparable in Duroc boar semen; while the use of T4 had significantly lower % coiled tail sperm compared to T7 in Quezon boar semen. Room temperature was observed to be more effective in storing diluted semen from Quezon native boars; however, both low and room temperatures were comparable in maintaining diluted Duroc boar semen. Collectively, 0.5% to 2.0% of honey and/or pineapple juice, or its mixture in a 1:1 proportion, are useful and economical substitute ingredients in boar semen extender.