Effect of midazolam sedation on sperm quality in capercaillie, following a protocol developed in chicken and partridge as model

Animal capture is essential in conservation and management programs, both for captive and wild species. This paper describes the effect of midazolam sedation in domestic and wild phasianids with respect to dorso-abdominal massage for obtaining semen samples, and on the quality of the sperm thus collected. Three experiments were performed. Experiment 1 - Determination, with respect to semen quality, of the optimum midazolam treatment for sedation in the domestic chicken. This involved sedating birds with either: 1) 2 mL of saline (control [C]), 2) 2 mg/kg of midazolam (low dose [LD]), 3) 6 mg/kg of midazolam (high dose [HD]), or 4) 6 mg/kg of midazolam and waiting 10 min before starting to massage (HD-10) (all performed in duplicate). The response time to the sedative (T1) was recorded, as were the times from the start of massage to ejaculation (T2) and its end (T3). The proportion of animals that showed stress during massage was noted via their waking, wing flapping, and the heterophil-lymphocyte ratio. The volume of all sperm samples obtained was determined, along with sperm concentration, motility, viability, and DNA integrity. Experiment 2 - The same determinations were made in captive red-legged partridges. Experiment 3 - The effect of the discovered optimum conditions (HD-10) for the above species was examined in the capercaillie (a wild species). Sperm quality was not affected by sedation with midazolam in any of the examined species, although the capercaillies and partridges were more nervous during semen collection than were the chickens.