Testing the limits of Rodent Sperm Analysis: azoospermia in an otherwise healthy wild rodent population.

ABSTRACT

By comparing the sperm parameters of small rodents trapped at contaminated terrestrial sites and nearby habitat-matched noncontaminated locations, the patent-pending Rodent Sperm Analysis (RSA) method provides a direct health status appraisal for the maximally chemical-exposed mammalian ecological receptor in the wild. RSA outcomes have consistently allowed for as definitive determinations of receptor health as are possible at the present time, thereby streamlining the ecological risk assessment (ERA) process. Here, we describe the unanticipated discovery, at a contaminated US EPA Superfund National Priorities List site, of a population of Hispid cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus), with a high percentage of adult males lacking sperm entirely (azoospermia). In light of the RSA method's role in streamlining ERAs and in bringing contaminated Superfund-type site investigations to closure, we consider the consequences of the discovery. The two matters specifically discussed are (1) the computation of a population's average sperm count where azoospermia is present and (2) the merits of the RSA method and its sperm parameter thresholds-for-effect when azoospermia is masked in an otherwise apparently healthy rodent population.