Testicular Degeneration

Barth, A.D.; Kastelic, John P.

doi:10.1002/9781119602484.ch13

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Overconditioning bulls has been recognized as a major factor leading to testicular degeneration in cooler climates. 5 Sustained elevated body temperatures associated with fever can lead to testicular degeneration; however, it appears that the body's stress response may confound the effect of heat. Localized inflammation associated with trauma may result in unilateral testicular degeneration.…”

Section: Pathophysiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…15 Rare, congenital conditions such as congenitally short scrotum and incomplete testes descent into the 3 scrotum, and acquired lesions limiting free movement of these testes may impair thermoregulatory mechanisms enough to cause degeneration. 5 Higher than normal testicular temperatures in one testis may impede thermoregulatory mechanisms in the contralateral testis causing a disruption in spermatogenesis or in severe cases, degeneration of both testes. 13 The examiner may observe that while one testis feels firm, fibrotic, and clearly shrunken the other testis is larger, but soft.…”

Section: Pathophysiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Longer duration disturbances and severe insults that result in substantial tissue disruption may progress to degeneration. 5 Testis may be able to partially or fully regenerate after degeneration depending on the extent of the damage and the quality of the repair process. Return to normal seminiferous epithelial function without fibrosis and scarring obviously favors regeneration and return to acceptable sperm quality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of testicular degeneration in the bull

Koziol

Palmer²

2023

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Testicular degeneration in the bull is described as diffuse disintegration of seminiferous tubule structure and function causing a profound reduction in sperm concentration, scrotal circumference, and an increase in sperm morphologic abnormalities resulting in subfertility or permanent infertility. Degenerative changes within the seminiferous epithelium occur most commonly after an insult to spermatogenesis or may be idiopathic. Common insults include trauma, stress (environmental, heat, nutritional), or toxins. Idiopathic is most often associated with age-related changes. Clinical signs of testicular degeneration are discussed along with approaches to treatment and potential prognoses as related to treatment and management practices that can be employed by the general practitioner and specialist alike. This review will also encompass a discussion on the pathophysiology of this disease so that the practitioner has a detailed understanding of the disease, which improves their ability to employ evidence-based medicine and sound clinical reasoning.

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Section: Pathophysiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pathophysiologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of testicular degeneration in the bull

Koziol

Palmer²

2023

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“…Among the testicular problems in young bulls, we can highlight testicular degeneration, hypoplasia, rotation, fibrosis, adhesion, cryptorchidism, orchitis and hydrocele (Figure 2). The use of ultrasonography is useful to diagnose certain testicular problems, however, it does not necessarily reveal testis that have lost germinal epithelium (Barth and Kastelic, 2021) (Figure 3). The most common acquired condition that affects bull fertility is testicular degeneration, in which normal testicles undergo pathologic changes, eventually resulting eventually in small testicular size, abnormal function and poor sperm quality (usually <20% morphologically normal sperm) (Hopkins, 2007).…”

Section: Risk Factors That Affect Bull Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most common acquired condition that affects bull fertility is testicular degeneration, in which normal testicles undergo pathologic changes, eventually resulting eventually in small testicular size, abnormal function and poor sperm quality (usually <20% morphologically normal sperm) (Hopkins, 2007). It can be caused by several environmental factors, including heat stress and scrotal frostbite, by obesity when there is an excessive accumulation of scrotal fat, by fever, trauma or senility, in addition to pharmacologically induced (Barth and Kastelic, 2021). Testicular degeneration may be temporary or permanent; bulls with this condition should not be culled immediately because after removal of underlying cause, testis structure and function often recover.…”

Section: Risk Factors That Affect Bull Fertilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictors of success in the breeding soundness evaluation and infertility in bulls

Miranda¹

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Bull fertility is critical for the profitability and sustainability of the cattle industry. To date, the Breeding soundness evaluation (BSE) is the best methodology to estimate the reproductive potential of future bulls. However, the guidelines for the BSE differ between practitioners and societies, perhaps due to a lack in research in this area. Therefore, our first study hypothesized that by the implementation and use of strict BSE guidelines the number of approved Nellore bulls and their reproductive quality would increase overtime. Furthermore, our second study hypothesized that bulls born early in the calving season are more likely to be approved in their first BSE when compared to males calved later. To evaluate these two hypotheses, records of 20 years and 46,566 BSE were used in two separate analyses including a multivariate logistic regression to measure the effect of the year and farm, and to predict the probability of approval in Nellore young bulls at their first BSE according to their dams calving date. Bulls were classified as approved (satisfactory potential breeders and qualified for natural breeding service) and not approved (deferred and unsatisfactory potential breeders). Overall, there was no improvement in the percentage of approved bulls. However, there was an increase in the number of bulls approved in the first BSE and an increase in the percentage of bulls classified as satisfactory potential breeders (P-value <0.05), which means that the quality of the bulls improved over time. On the other hand, it was demonstrated that the calving date affected the probability of approval at the first BSE. Hence, bulls born on day 0 of the calving season had 1.26 more chances to be approved at the first BSE than bulls born 21 days later. In our studies, 53% of the bulls were not approved due to poor sperm quality, specifically abnormal sperm morphology. Bull ejaculates with the aplastic midpiece defect (AMD) have poor motility and fertility and it’s related to have a putative genetic origin. Therefore, our third study aimed to understand the origin and factors contributing to the abnormal sperm production of the AMD in Dairy Gyr bulls. Six Dairy Gyr Bulls (three control bulls and three bulls with AMD) obtained from the same farm and management were castrated to conduct a sperm morphofunctional and proteomic study and evaluate the redox state of reproductive tissues. The morphological analysis demonstrated that the AMD is a consequence of defective spermiogenesis. Control bulls also produced a high percentage of AMD but have an effective mechanism of removal of the defective sperm prior to epididymal transit. This mechanism generates mild oxidative stress in the testis and caput of the epididymis (measured as MDA and CAT; P-value <0.05); however, the redox state was reestablished in the corpus and cauda of the epididymis. Furthermore, qualitative and quantitative proteomic analysis showed that the sperm maturation of the bulls with the AMD should be deficient once they had differences in protein expression and a poor enrichment of critical pathways for sperm fertility. Finally, our last study hypothesized that binder of sperm (BSP) proteins could be used as a potential biomarker of defective sperm. Therefore, we characterized the binding properties and abundance of the BSP proteins after discontinuous gradient centrifugation and found that; in the supernatant fractions, there was an increase of BSP proteins abundance when compared to the sperm pellet fractions (P- value <0.05). In the sperm pellet fractions, BSP1 and BSP3 bound predominately to the acrosomal region of the sperm head, whereas BSP5 had a high affinity for the midpiece. Furthermore, high BSP proteins abundance was found to be correlated with acrosome and membrane damage induced by permeabilization. Therefore, the abundance of BSP proteins could be used as biomarker of defective sperm or sperm with compromise function. Our results allowed us to complement the knowledge on bull fertility, from the basic but functionally BSE to biomarkers for defective sperm specially on Bos indicus cattle. Keywords: Bull fertility. Sperm morphology. BSPs. Biomarkers.

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Serial frequent or multiple Tru-cut® testicular biopsies in rams enable assessment of histological characteristics or transcriptional profiles, with no acute or chronic adverse effects

Pupulim,

Rattes,

Mogollón García

et al. 2025

Theriogenology

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Testicular Degeneration

Cited by 3 publications

References 30 publications

Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of testicular degeneration in the bull

Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of testicular degeneration in the bull

Predictors of success in the breeding soundness evaluation and infertility in bulls

Serial frequent or multiple Tru-cut® testicular biopsies in rams enable assessment of histological characteristics or transcriptional profiles, with no acute or chronic adverse effects

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