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Treatment of male goats with equine chorionic gonadotrophin during the non-breeding season does not affect their sperm characteristics during the subsequent breeding season

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Abstract

Equine chorionic gonadotrophin (eCG) is a hormone having FSH/LH effects. It can be used to enhance sperm quality in male goats (bucks) during the non-breeding season. In a previous study carried out during the non-breeding season, we treated ten bucks with eCG (leaving nine untreated animals as control). Over a 20-day period, the treated bucks received an initial dose of 800 IU of eCG, followed by four doses of 500 IU. We found eCG enhanced semen quality, however, as also happens in female goats (does), eCG also induced a high titer of anti-eCG antibodies. In does, this lowers fertility. The aim of the present study was to determine if the eCG treatment carried out on bucks during the non-breeding season had any negative effects on their reproductive status during the following breeding season. We measured serum concentration of testosterone and anti-eCG antibody, as well as key testicular and seminal characteristics. This study commenced 91 days after the final dose of eCG in the previous study. The anti-eCG titer was higher in the treatment bucks than in untreated ones (181.7 ± 61.3 ng/μL vs 31.1 ± 10.7 ng/μL; P < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences between treated and untreated bucks in testosterone concentration, scrotal circumference, testes pixel intensity, fresh and thawed semen characteristics, or sperm cryoresistance. So, although the eCG-treated bucks had greater titers of anti-eCG antibodies, their reproductive pattern was unaffected.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Milton Pintos for his help with animal management and Gerardo Less and Matías Fiorelli for their help during the collection of the samples. We also thank Julia Giriboni and Patricia Silveira for their help in testosterone measurement and to Laureana De Brun and Rodrigo Puentes for their help with ELISA analyses. Syntex Uruguay donated the eCG used during the non-breeding season. Finally, we acknowledge Diego Detomasi, María José Borges, and Sandy Lang for language revision.

Funding

This study was supported by CSIC (Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay). FB received a scholarship from Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII, Montevideo, Uruguay).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de la República, Alberto Lasplaces 1620, 11600, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Florencia Beracochea, María Noel Viera & Rodolfo Ungerfeld

  2. Departamento de Reproducción Animal, Instituto de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimenticia (INIA), Madrid, Spain

    Julián Santiago-Moreno

Authors
  1. Florencia Beracochea
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  2. María Noel Viera
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  3. Julián Santiago-Moreno
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  4. Rodolfo Ungerfeld
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Florencia Beracochea.

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All the experimental procedures were approved by the Comisión de Ética en el Uso de Animales of the Facultad de Veterinaria (Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Beracochea, F., Viera, M.N., Santiago-Moreno, J. et al. Treatment of male goats with equine chorionic gonadotrophin during the non-breeding season does not affect their sperm characteristics during the subsequent breeding season. Trop Anim Health Prod 52, 211–215 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-019-02004-y

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