Testicular fibrotic lesions and semen quality in adult Montana Tropical Compound bulls

• Autor(a) principal: Pinho, Rogério Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Costa, Deiler Sampaio, Siqueira, Jeanne Broch, Martins, Leonardo Franco, Neto, Tamires Miranda, Pereira, Jhonata Vieira Tavares do Nascimento, Guimarães, Simone Eliza Facioni, Guimarães, José Domingos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Veterinary Medicine
• Texto Completo: https://rbmv.org/BJVM/article/view/602
• topic: Fibrose testicular; sêmen; touros; ultrassonografia; Bulls; semen quality; testicular fibrosis; ultrassonography

ABSTRACT. Pinho R.O., Costa D.S., Siqueira J.B., Martins L.F., Miranda Neto T., Pereira J.V.T. do N,, Guimarães S.E.F. & Guimarães J.D. Testicular fibrotic lesions and semen quality in adult Montana Tropical Compound bulls. [Lesões fibróticas testiculares e qualidade seminal em touros adultos da raça Composto Montana Tropical]. Revista Brasileira de Medicina Veterinária, 35(2):105-110, 2013. Departamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Avenida PH Rolfs, s/n, Viçosa, MG 36570-000, Brasil. E-mail: [e-mail] This study investigated the use of ultrasonography as a complementary test in the diagnosis of testicular fibrosis, and the relationship of fibrotic lesions with semen quality in adult Montana Tropical Compound breed bulls. For this purpose 109 adult Montana Tropical Compound breed bulls, aged between 2.9 and 11.8 years, and raised extensively were used. The animals were evaluated for breeding soundness, and classified as sound and unsound for breeding by physical and morphological semen features. All animals underwent ultrasound examination of the testes, forming images which were transferred to a computer, capturing the average pixel intensity of each testicular image region. Additionally, a testicular fibrosis and/or calcification points score, ranging from 0 to 6 was assigned, to quantify the patterns, size, and frequency of fibrotic lesions. From the animals studied 87.2% (95/109) were found sound for breeding, and 12.8% (14/109) unsound for breeding. The correlation between pixel intensity of the left testis and testicular volume was low (r = -0.16). The testicular fibrosis point score demonstrated a low correlation with scrotal circumference (r = 0.25 and 0.24 for left and right testis, respectively) and testicular volume (r = 0.27), and a medium correlation with animal’s age (r = 0.35 and 0.34 for left and right testis, respectively). Pixel analyses of testicular ultrasonograms were not predictive of semen quality of adult Montana Tropical Compound breed bulls. Moreover, the varying degrees of testicular fibrosis did not affect sperm quality.