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Semen cryopreservation is an important strategy for conserving animal genetic diversity and disseminating high-value genotypes, facilitated by non-invasive retrieval and collection of large quantities of semen. In chickens, various freezing protocols and cryoprotectants (CPAs) have been developed to freeze sperm, but each lab still debates and competes to disclose the most suitable freezing conditions. Many key points, such as semen donor selection, collection tips, diluent compositions, CPA selection, pre-freezing manipulation, semen packaging type, freezing and thawing rates, are all impactful to the efficiency of chicken sperm cryopreservation. Whereas glycerol is believed as the most efficient and the less toxic CPA, it  however presents an unwanted contraceptive effect after insemination. Thus, one of the major developed strategies to conquer this issue is removing glycerol before insemination, but current protocols remain not efficient to completely abolish glycerol contraceptive effect. Novel methodologies will bring us a better understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in sperm cryobiology to meet the challenges of chicken sperm cryopreservation.

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• Anaïs Vitorino Carvalho