An equation to determine the percentage of whole blood contamination in stallion semen, based on packed cell volume

  • Samantha Loving Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
  • Reed Holyoak Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
  • Carly Turner-Garcia Lazy E Ranch, Guthrie, OK, USA
  • Dale Kelley Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA
Keywords: Stallion, hemospermia, equation, prediction

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to determine a method to estimate the percentage of whole blood contamination in stallion semen. Experiment 1 used a mathematical simulation to predict packed cell volume (PCV) of hemospermic semen, based on whole blood PCV. A regression line was plotted for each simulation and the equation of the line was calculated that produced the following equation:

Percent whole blood contamination in semen = [PCVsemen + (PCVblood/100)] ÷ (PCVblood/100)

The equation was then used to predict the percentage of whole blood contamination in semen and compared to the actual percentage. Experiment 2 tested the equation using blood-semen mixtures at 5, 10, 20, 40 and 50% dilutions. Experiment 3 expanded the dilution range used in Experiment 2 to span from 0-100% at 20% increments. PCV of blood and semen dilutions from Experiments 2 and 3 were measured. The mean difference between the actual percentage of whole blood contamination and predicted was –0.59 ± 3.53 in Experiment 2, and the test for zero bias was not significant and there was no significant correlation in the independence of bias. In Experiment 3, mean difference between the actual percent of whole blood contamination and predicted was –2.73 ± 0.87 and the test for zero bias and correlation in the independence of bias were significant. These data suggested that the amount of whole blood contamination in semen can be estimated based on stallion’s PCVs blood and semen sample.

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Published
2026-07-21
How to Cite
Loving , S., Holyoak , R., Turner-Garcia , C., & Kelley , D. (2026). An equation to determine the percentage of whole blood contamination in stallion semen, based on packed cell volume. Clinical Theriogenology, 18. https://doi.org/10.58292/CT.v18.13913
Section
Research Reports

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