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ARTIFICIAL CRYPTORCHIDISM AND FERTILITY IN THE RABBIT

Summary.: Artificial cryptorchidism produced sterility in male rabbits within 7 days. Progressive infertility, which first appeared on the 2nd day after operation, resulted from a failure of a normal number of live motile spermatozoa to fertilize. Many such spermatozoa had not discarded their cytoplasmic droplets, and it is thought that these were heat-affected and incapable of fertilization. This is because fertilization rate and implantation rate were significantly (P<0·001) correlated with the number of live (droplet-free) spermatozoa in the inseminates.

There were no adverse effects on the ability of embryos to implant or to survive gestation, and the morphology and sex ratio of foetuses at term were normal. Before fertilization failure became apparent, there were significant (P<0·001) improvements in embryonic survival rates and a theory is advanced to explain these findings.