Department of Veterinary Clinical Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Malaysia.
Trop Anim Health Prod. 2023 Feb 10;55(2):76. doi: 10.1007/s11250-023-03490-x.
Bull breeding soundness evaluation (BBSE) is the most common procedure used to predict bull potential fertility. However, the use of traditional methods for semen evaluation can affect its reliability. The inclusion of additional advanced test in BBSE may increase its accuracy. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between the degree of sperm protamination and BBSE main parameters of scrotal circumference (SC), progressive motility (PM), morphologically normal sperm (NS), and different categories of morphological defects. In addition, to determine the correlation between the three methods used for protamine assessment, five Brangus bulls were subjected to the BBSE. Semen samples were collected via electro-ejaculation and evaluated using traditional methods. Three different methods were used to determine the degree of sperm protamination: aniline blue (AB) staining, chromomycin A3 staining with fluorescent microscope (CMA3-FLM), and CMA3 with flow cytometry (CMA3-FCM). Sperm protamine deficiency assessed using the three methods exhibited significant differences among bulls according to their classification by BBSE, and showed significant negative correlation with semen quality parameters of NS and PM. A significant positive correlation was found between AB positivity and morphological abnormalities. The three methods used for protamine assessment also revealed significant positive correlations. Among the three tests, AB staining was the cheapest and easiest test that offers an objective assessment method for sperm protamination. Hence, it can be concluded that the assessment of protamination using AB staining test might serve as an additional valuable parameter or a replacement whenever detail sperm motility and morphology analyses in conducting BBSE to predict bull fertility are not possible.
牛的繁殖健全评估（BBSE）是预测公牛潜在生育能力最常用的方法。然而，传统的精液评估方法的使用会影响其可靠性。在 BBSE 中增加额外的先进测试可能会提高其准确性。本研究旨在探讨精子顶体完整程度与 BBSE 主要参数（阴囊周长（SC）、前向运动精子（PM）、形态正常精子（NS）和不同形态缺陷类别）之间的相关性。此外，还确定了用于评估顶体完整程度的三种方法之间的相关性，对五头 Brangus 公牛进行了 BBSE。通过电刺激法采集精液样本，并使用传统方法进行评估。使用三种不同的方法来确定精子顶体完整程度：苯胺蓝（AB）染色、荧光显微镜下染色（CMA3-FLM）和 CMA3 流式细胞术（CMA3-FCM）。根据 BBSE 分类，三种方法评估的精子顶体完整程度在公牛之间存在显著差异，与 NS 和 PM 精液质量参数呈显著负相关。AB 阳性与形态异常之间存在显著正相关。用于评估顶体完整程度的三种方法之间也存在显著的正相关。在这三种测试中，AB 染色是最便宜和最简单的测试，为精子顶体完整程度提供了一种客观的评估方法。因此，可以得出结论，使用 AB 染色测试评估顶体完整程度可能是一种额外的有价值的参数，或者在进行 BBSE 预测公牛生育能力时，当无法进行详细的精子运动和形态分析时，可以替代这些方法。
