Preserved semen
BRS-Standard
Within the framework of the BRS Standard Boar Semen Quality Agreement, the participating organizations guarantee that the portions of boar semen sold by them conform to certain minimum requirements, with reference to technical deviations.
Minimum requirements
- 1.8 billion sperm cells with 65% motile sperm cells per tube or 1.3 billion motile sperm cells per tube
- 80 ml tube volume
Sperm motility is determined microscopically and using computational algorithms. The minimum requirement applies if the sperm tubes are stored properly for up to 72 hours after semen collection. This standard should be checked twice a year - ideally in conjunction with the annual station monitoring - by the BRS reference laboratories.
Guidelines of the spermatology reference laboratories of the BRS (02.08.2023)
| Motile spermatozoa until 72 h of storage (%) | 65 |
| Morphological abnormal spermatozoa, sum (%) | ≤ 25 |
| spermatozoa with head deformations (%) | ≤ 5 |
| Spermatozoa with acrosome abnormalities until 72 h of storage (%) | ≤ 15 |
| Spermatozoa with cytoplasmic droplets (%) | ≤ 15* |
| Spermatozoa with bent tails (%) | ≤ 15 |
| Spermatozoa with other morphological abnormalities (%) | ≤ 15 |
*) In semen portions with a minimum number of 2 billion spermatozoa and a minimum of 75 % motile spermatozoa until 72 h of storage, this value may be up to 10 percentage points higher. Accordingly, the percentage of morphological abnormal spermatozoa increases to a maximum of 35 %.
Reference laboratories of the BRS
Foundation University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover
Unit for Reproductive Medicine
Bünteweg 15
30559 Hannover
Tel.: 0511 / 953 8520
Accredited central laboratory for spermatology (DAkkS D-PL-13261) according to the international standard DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025
Institute for Reproduction of Farm Animals
IFN Schönow e.V.
Bernauer Allee 10
16321 Bernau OT Schönow
Tel: 03338 / 34 14 400
IFN Schönow GmbH
Bernauer Allee 10
16321 Bernau OT Schönow
Tel: 03338 / 34 14 400
Accredited laboratory for spermatology (DAkkS D-PL-13367) according to the international standard DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025
Literature sources
