Effect of age on spermiogram of Holstein Friesian × Sahiwal crossbred bulls

Abstract

This study was conducted on 94 Frieswal (5/8 Holstein Friesian 3/8 Sahiwal) crossbred bulls of three different grades, categorized based on their semen freezability visualising Group 1 (consistently freezable semen producer bulls, N 5 11), Group 2 (inconsistent freezable, N 5 16) and Group 3 (Non freezable, N 5 67). Each group was further divided into two classes that is young (up to 30 months) and adult (31 to 70 months) bulls depending upon their age. Sperm morphology was studied by using the eosin-nigrosin staining technique. Bulls age significantly (P , 0.01) affected semen quality and sperm morphology. In adult bulls, semen volume, mass activity and sperm concentration were 36%, 17.56% and 19.6%, respectively, higher than young. Initial progressive motility (%) and livability showed significant (P , 0.01) improvement with the advancement of age (43.37 6 1.21 and 67.71 6 1.11, respectively, in young; 53.02 6 1.11 and 74.17 6 1.03, respectively, in adult). In young bulls, sperm head, mid piece, tail abnormality and total abnormal sperm percent (12.38 6 0.92, 4.87 6 0.24, 11.01 6 0.60 and 28.26 6 1.34, respectively) were 1.85, 1.27, 1.20 and 1.44 folds higher than that of their mature stage (6.69 6 0.64, 3.82 6 0.32, 9.14 6 0.64 and 19.66 6 1.31, respectively). Significant reduction (P , 0.01) in micro cephalic sperm, free heads, bent mid piece, looped mid piece and proximal protoplasmic droplets were observed at mature age as compared with their younger stage. In bulls of consistent freezing category, abnormal sperm heads significantly decreased from 4.40 6 0.31% to 3.28 6 0.02% on maturity. Similarly, in inconsistent freezing grade bulls sperm head abnormality (9.28 6 0.75% to 5.13 6 1.20%) and total abnormal sperm percent (24.89 6 1.43 to 18.73 6 3.40) was decreased over the age. On the contrary, in non-freezing category bulls' sperm morphology did not show significant (P . 0.05) improvement with age advancement, rather some abnormalities like long slender head, under developed/deformed head, abaxial implantation of mid piece, double mid piece, stump tail and distal protoplasmic droplets tend to increased significantly (P , 0.05) with age of bulls. Results indicated that in potential Frieswal bulls semen quality and sperm morphology were improved from young to mature stage, where as, in poor quality (non-freezing) semen producer bulls neither the morphology nor the semen quality showed any improvement with maturity. It was recommended that crossbred bulls producing more than 25% morphologically abnormal sperms in young age (below 30 months) along with poor progressive motility (,50%) and low sperm concentration (,1000 million/ml) need immediate culling with out any expectation of further improvement in semen quality with age advancement.Keywords: Sperm abnormality, Frieswal crossbred bull, Sperm morphology, Bos indicus 3 Bos taurus Implication Assessment of sperm morphology is one of the most important aspects for semen evaluation and successful fertilisation. High percentage of morphologically abnormal spe...

Genetic and non-genetic factors affecting semen production traits in Karan Fries crossbred bulls

“…The semen production is affected by season (Singh et al 2000;Mathur et al 2002;Bhoite et al 2005) as well as period (Bhoite et al 2005). Age also affects semen production as reported by various workers (Sudheer 2000;Mandal et al 2010). The average age at first semen collection of crossbred bulls is about 29 months in Jersey ź Zebu (Suryaprakasam and Rao 1993).…”

Divergent development of testosterone secretion in male zebu (Bos indicus) and crossbred cattle (Bos indicus x Bos taurus) and buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) during growth

“…These differences in observations support our view that crossbreeding of B. indicus with B. taurus might result in a gene pool in the crossbred which is responsible for low testosterone concentrations. Earlier studies involving comparisons for sexual behavior and seminal attributes in Ongole (zebu) and Jersey x Ongole crossbred bulls (Rao et al 1996) as well as Sahiwal and Holstein Freisian x Sahiwal crossbred bulls (Mandal and Tyagi 2004;Mandal et al 2008) also provide evidence for poor sexual behavior and semen quality in crossbred bulls. Post et al (1987) demonstrated that plasma testosterone response to GnRH was highly variable in zebu x British crossbred bulls despite the fact that the bulls were selected for uniformity of breed, age, and size.…”

Evaluation of morphological criteria of sperm quality before in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection

“…Many authors using different staining methods describe various morphologic abnormalities of sperm in bulls (Revay et al 2009, Freneau et al 2010, Mandal et al 2010, Enciso et al 2011, stallions (Kavak et al 2004, Morrell et al 2008, Einarsson et al 2009, Brito et al 2011, Love 2011, rams (Lambrechts et al 2000, Janett et al 2001, Sweeney et al 2007, Lopez Armengol et al 2012) and dogs (Kawakami et al 2005, Nxñ ez-Martinez et al 2005, Peñ a et al 2007, Lange-Consiglio et al 2010). But we did not find concrete references what is the morphologically normal sperm cell in domestic animals.…”