Effects of age and breed on semen quality of beef bull sires in an Indonesian artificial insemination center

N Isnaini, S Wahjuningsih, A Ma’ruf and D A Witayanto

Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Animal Science, University of Brawijaya, Malang 65145, Indonesia
nurulisna@ub.ac.id

Abstract

The research work was carried out to evaluate the effects of age and breed on semen quality of beef bull sires. The experimental site was located at Singosari National Artificial Insemination Center, Malang, Indonesia. A total of 180 ejaculate semen which were collected from 9 beef bull sires (3 Bali, 3 Limousin, and 3 Simmental bulls) aged at either 2 years (young), 5 years (middle), or 12 years (old) were used in this study. The semen was collected twice weekly and directly evaluated for their ejaculate volume (EV), sperm concentration (SC), total sperm number (TSN), individual sperm motility (ISM), post-thawing sperm motility (PTSM), and frozen semen dose (FSD). The study showed that there were age-related changes on semen quality of beef bull sires, except for ISM and PTSM. The peak (p <0.05) EV was achieved by old bulls, but with the lowest (p <0.05) SC, TSN, and FSD. The breeds also contributed to the variation on sperm quality. Limousin bulls had the highest (p<0.05) EV compared to other breeds. The higher (p<0.05) SC, TSN, and FSD were observed in Simmental and Limousin bulls compared to Bali bulls. However, in the case of ISM and PTSM, Bali bulls had greater value ( p<0.05) than other breeds. Moreover, the results underlined that there were age x breed interaction effects (p<0.05) on all semen quality parameters observed in this study. Overall, the age effect on frozen semen production of beef bull sires is varied among breeds studied here. It is recommended to provide special management condition on each breed of beef bull sires to optimize frozen semen production.

Key words: artificial insemination, Bali bulls, semen cryopreservation, Limousin bulls, Simmental bulls

Introduction

Artificial insemination is one of the powerful reproductive technologies, which is very effective to produce calves with high genetic potential. However, it should be considered that the success of this technology is highly dependent on the semen quality of the bulls. One of the most important factors influencing the semen quality is the age of bulls (Fuerst-Waltl et al 2006, Mahmood et al 2014, Argiris et al 2018). Besides that, the variation on semen quality was also detected among bovine breeds (Brito et al 2002; Rehman et al 2016).

Bali cattle (Bos javanicus)) is one of the Indonesian native breeds, which has potency as a beef cattle. This breed is accounted to about 27% of the total cattle population and mostly reared by the small-scale farmers in Indonesia (Purwantara et al 2012). Beside Bali cattle, Limousin and Simmental cattle (European origin breeds) are also developed in Indonesia. Those two breeds were favorably used to be crossed with Indonesian native cattle (Agus and Widi 2018). Currently, the comparative evaluation of semen quality between Indonesian native and European origin bull sires is still limited. Based on those mentioned backgrounds, this study aimed to assess the age and breed effects on semen quality of beef bull sires in an artificial insemination center in Indonesia.

Materials and methods

Experimental site

The experimental site was located at Singosari National Artificial Insemination Center, Malang, Indonesia. The site is situated in a tropical region between -7° 53' 32.64" south latitude and 112° 39' 56.88" east longitude with an altitude of 486 m above sea level.

Beef bull sires

A total of nine beef bull sires (3 Bali, 3 Limousin, and 3 Simmental bulls) were used in this study. Each breed was grouped into three age categorized namely young (2 years), middle (5 years), and old (12 years). All of the bulls were reared with a similar management condition under the standard procedure in Singosari National Artificial Insemination Center.

Semen collection and evaluation

The semen was collected twice weekly using artificial vagina (Carreira et al 2017). The collection was done until each bull produced 20 ejaculates of semen (totaling 180 ejaculate semen of all bulls). After collection, the semen parameters were directly evaluated. At first, the ejaculate volume (EV) was measured using a scaled collection vial (Kumar et al 2015). The sperm concentration (SC) was then measured by using spectrophotometric method (Nirwana and Suparman 2017). The total sperm number (TSN) was obtained through calculation by multiplying EV by SC (Hering et al 2014). Next, the individual and post-thawing sperm motility (ISM and PTSM, respectively) were measured using a light microscope (Soren et al 2016). Only approved ejaculate (PTSM ≥ 40%), which was included in the frozen semen dose (FSD) evaluation. FSD was calculated by dividing TSN by 25 x 10 ⁶ (Indonesian National Standardized Agency, 2017).

Statistical analysis

All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 13.0 for Windows. The data were analyzed using factorial analysis of variance to evaluate age, breed, and their interaction effects on semen quality parameters. The means in groups, which exhibit significant difference were further compared by Duncan Multiple Range Test. The statistical significance was set at p<0.05.

Results and discussion

Age effect on semen quality parameters

Table 1 shows that the old bull had a higher (p<0.05) EV, but with a lower (p<0.05) SC, TSN, and FSD compared to those at young and middle age. On the other hand, ISM and PTSM remain unchanged among different age classes. In the previous studies, it was also reported that the older bulls had higher semen volume than the younger bulls (Vince et al 2018; Snoj et al 2013). The reason why the highest EV is achieved by the old bulls may be due to the higher testicular traits along with the increase in age (Perumal et al 2017; Jadhav et al 2018), thus possibly improve ejaculate volume.

The lower SC in the older bulls was consistent with those reported by Gopinathan et al (2018a) and Vince et al (2018). It could be explained that the advancement in age will be followed by degenerative change in seminiferous tubule resulting in the lower sperm production (D’Andre et al 2017). The decline of SC at the old age was also followed by the decline of TSN and FSD. It is logical since SC data is used as a basis of TSN and FSD calculation so that the results of the latter two traits are highly dependent by the former. Previously, Snoj et al (2013) reported that the total sperm number declined when beef bull sires older than 84 months. In another study, Gopinathan et al (2018a) also showed that the lowest frozen semen production was recorded when the bulls aged at >143 months.

No significant age effect on ISM and PTSM were found in previous studies. Vince et al (2018) observed that there was no significant difference in sperm motility between the young and old bulls. In Sahiwal bulls, it was also found that the sperm motility was similar among the bulls aged from 24 to >100 months (Ahmad et al 2011). In another study, the similar post-thawing total sperm motility was also reported in the bulls aged from 1 to >4 years (Murphy et al 2018). The overall mean ISM and PTSM of beef bull sires in this study were almost similar to those reported by Hapsari et al (2018).

Breed effect on semen quality parameters

Table 2 shows that semen quality parameters were differed among breeds. The highest (p<0.05) EV was recorded in Limousin bulls. In addition, the greater SC, TSN, and FSD (p<0.05) were observed in Simmental and Limousin bulls as compared to Bali bulls. Whereas, Bali bulls had greater (p<0.05) ISM and PTSM than other breeds. The variation of semen quality among bovine breeds was also reported in the previous studies. Anchieta et al (2005) noted that bovine semen from European breeds showed a higher sperm concentration than Zebu breeds. However, Koivisto et al (2009) observed that the sperm motility was lower in Bos taurus bulls than Bos indicus bulls. In another study, Isnaini et al (2019) highlighted that Simmental bulls (one of the European origin breeds) had superior frozen semen production than Ongole crossbred bulls.

The difference in body weight may partly explain the higher frozen semen production in European origin breed as compared to Indonesian native breed. In this study, the mean body weight of Limousin and Simmental bulls were 995 and 941 kg, respectively, while Bali bull was 529 kg. In a previous study, it was observed that the bulls with body weight >650 kg had higher frozen semen production than those with body weight 450-550 kg (Gopinathan et al 2018b). In the case of motility traits, the higher value in Bali bulls may be more attributed with the greater resistance of this breed to the high temperature in the tropical region as compared to Limousin and Simmental bulls. Such as those mentioned by Koivisto et al (2009), the European origin bulls were highly susceptible to the environmental conditions, when these bulls exposed to the high ambient temperature, the sperm motility will be reduced.

Age x breed interaction effect on semen quality parameters

Table 3 shows that age x breed interaction effects were observed on all semen quality parameters. It was clearly showed that in Bali bulls, EV increased (p<0.05) with the advancing age. On the other hand, the decline of SC (p<0.05) was recorded in the old bulls of all breed studied here. In Bali bulls, TSN and FSD increased (p <0.05) from young to middle age and then remain unchanged (p >0.05) until old age. Whereas, in Limousin and Simmental bulls, TSN and FSD were reaching a maximum point at the young age and then decline ( p<0.05) as the bulls getting older. In this study, each breed has a different maximum point of ISM. The highest (p<0.05) ISM of Bali, Limousin, and Simmental bulls were recorded at young, old, and middle age, respectively. In addition, PTSM of Bali and Simmental bulls remain similar (p<0.05) on all age categories. However, a reduction (p<0.05) of PTSM was detected in Limousin bulls at the middle age. At the young age, Limousin and Simmental bulls had higher (p<0.05) EV, SC, TSN, and FSD, while Bali bulls had higher ( p<0.05) ISM. On the other hand, PTSM was similar among breeds. At the middle age, EV and FSD were similar (p>0.05) among breeds. However, Limousin and Simmental bulls had higher (p <0.05) SC and TSN compared to Bali bulls. The higher ISM and PTSM ( p<0.05) were recorded in Bali bulls compared to Limousin bulls. At the old age, Bali bulls had higher (p<0.05) EV and PTSM, while Simmental bulls had higher (p<0.05) SC. Whereas, TSN, ISM, and FSD were similar (p>0.05) among breeds.

In a previous report, Snoj et al (2013) also observed that the peak semen quality was achieved at different age in several European cattle breeds. The highest total sperm output in Limousin bulls was detected at 5 to 6 years old, in Brown Swiss and Charolais bulls at 6 to 7 years old, while in Holstein bulls at more than 7 years old. In another study, Beran et al (2011) noted that in Holstein bulls, the higher sperm motility after thawing was achieved at the old age, whereas in Czech Fleckvieh bulls at the young age. These mentioned study along with this current finding strongly confirmed that the age effect on semen quality of bull sires is varied depending on breed.

Conclusions

• It could be concluded that the age effect on frozen semen production of beef bull sires is varied among breeds studied here.
  
  
• In Bali bulls, frozen semen production is increased from 2 to 5 years old and then remain unchanged until 12 years old.
  
  
• In Limousin and Simmental bulls, the peak frozen semen production is achieved at 2 years old and then decline at 5 and 12 years old.
  
  
• The Simmental and Limousin bulls have higher frozen semen production, while Bali bulls have more preferred sperm motility, particularly at the young age.
  
  
• To optimize frozen semen production, artificial insemination center should provide special management condition on each breed of beef bull sires.

Acknowledgment

The authors sincerely thank to Singosari National Artificial Insemination Center for research facility support.

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Received 14 April 2019; Accepted 20 April 2019; Published 1 May 2019

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