Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effect of feeding corn silage on semen quality and spermatogenesis of bulls

Veterinary Research Communications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Cite this article

Abstract

Bovine reproduction, including male fertility traits like semen quality, are influenced by a variety of different factors like breed, nutrition, environment, and feeding management. Diet in a crucial determinant, and in this regard although corn silage is generally considered to be a favorable roughage for fattening meat type breeds, it tends to have a negative impact on semen quality. In the current study, alfalfa hay was substituted by corn silage as a roughage source in the diet of bulls to investigate its effects on the fertility of breeding bulls. A feeding trail spanning 140 days was conducted, with semen collection occurring twice a week commencing 60 days after the start of trial. Semen quality parameters, serum antioxidant indexes, sex hormone content in semen, rumen microflora, and sperm transcriptome were characterized. Feeding corn silage enhanced host antioxidant capacity, significantly decreased spermatozoal motility and increased sperm deformity rate in bulls. Furthermore, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) content in semen were significantly decreased (P < 0.05), and the inhibin B (INHB) content was significantly increased (P < 0.01). Feeding corn silage led to significant changes in the diversity of rumen microbiota of cattle at the phylum and genus levels, some of which were significantly correlated with semen quality. Subsequent RNA sequencing indicated that DHH and PITHD1, two genes related to sperm and reproductive development, were differentially expressed, and enrichment analysis also identified several pathways and biological functions relevant to sperm development and reproduction. These results indicate that feeding corn silage modulates semen quality via different pathways. Firstly, corn silage metabolites likely affect the secretion of INHB through the testicular capillaries, which affects semen quality by regulating genes involved in spermatogenesis. Secondly, low lignin content in silage corn appears to reduce abundance of rumen flora that are positively correlated with semen quality. Overall, results indicate that feeding bulls corn silage as the primary source of forage could negatively impact semen quality and may not be appropriate as the primary roughage of forage for breeding bulls.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Data is contained within the article.

References

  • Al-Asmakh M, Stukenborg J-B, Reda A et al (2014) The gut microbiota and developmental programming of the testis in mice. PLoS ONE 9:e103809

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bassiony MM, Youssef UM, El-Gohari H (2020) Free testosterone and prolactin levels and sperm morphology and function among male patients with tramadol abuse: a case-control study. J Clin Psychopharmacol 40:405–408

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Callaghan MJ, McAuliffe P, Rodgers RJ et al (2016) Subacute ruminal acidosis reduces sperm quality in beef bulls. J Anim Sci 94:3215–3228

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chen H, Wang C, Huasai S, Chen A (2021) Effects of dietary forage to concentrate ratio on nutrient digestibility, ruminal fermentation and rumen bacterial composition in Angus cows. Sci Rep 11:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooke PS, Nanjappa MK, Ko C et al (2017) Estrogens in male physiology. Physiol Rev 97:995–1043

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Craig JR, Jenkins TG, Carrell DT, Hotaling JM (2017) Obesity, male infertility, and the sperm epigenome. Fertil Steril 107:848–859

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson LM, Millar K, Jones C et al (2015) Deleterious effects of obesity upon the hormonal and molecular mechanisms controlling spermatogenesis and male fertility. Hum Fertil 18:184–193

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • del Rio D, Stewart AJ, Pellegrini N (2005) A review of recent studies on malondialdehyde as toxic molecule and biological marker of oxidative stress. Nutr Metabolism Cardiovasc Dis 15:316–328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ding N, Zhang X, di Zhang X et al (2020) Impairment of spermatogenesis and sperm motility by the high-fat diet-induced dysbiosis of gut microbes. Gut 69:1608–1619

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Diyabalanage S, Dangolla A, Mallawa C et al (2020) Bioavailability of selenium (Se) in cattle population in Sri Lanka based on qualitative determination of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities. Environ Geochem Health 42:617–624

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fernando SC, Purvis HT, Najar FZ et al (2010) Rumen microbial population dynamics during adaptation to a high-grain diet. Appl Environ Microbiol 76:7482–7490

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Huang Y, Li X, Sun X et al (2021) Anatomical transcriptome Atlas of the male mouse Reproductive System during Aging. Front Cell Dev Biol 9

  • Huhtanen P, Nousiainen J, Rinne M (2006) Recent developments in forage evaluation with special reference to practical applications

  • Jarvis S, Gethings LA, Samanta L et al (2020) High fat diet causes distinct aberrations in the testicular proteome. Int J Obes 44:1958–1969

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim YHB, Stuart A, Rosenvold K, Maclennan G (2013) Effect of forage and retail packaging types on meat quality of long-term chilled lamb loins. J Anim Sci 91:5998–6007

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kondo H, Matsumura T, Kaneko M et al (2020) PITHD1 is a proteasome-interacting protein essential for male fertilization. J Biol Chem 295:1658–1672

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Krause KM, Combs DK (2003) Effects of forage particle size, forage source, and grain fermentability on performance and ruminal pH in midlactation cows. J Dairy Sci 86:1382–1397

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kuribayashi Y, Gagnon C (1996) Effect of catalase and thioredoxin addition to sperm incubation medium before in vitro fertilization on sperm capacity to support embryo development. Fertil Steril 66:1012–1017

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Li F, Hitch TCA, Chen Y et al (2019) Comparative metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses reveal the breed effect on the rumen microbiome and its associations with feed efficiency in beef cattle. Microbiome 7:1–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lie PPY, Cheng CY, Mruk DD (2013) Signalling pathways regulating the blood–testis barrier. Int J Biochem Cell Biol 45:621–625

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marin-Guzman J, Mahan DC, Whitmoyer R (2000) Effect of dietary selenium and vitamin E on the ultrastructure and ATP concentration of boar spermatozoa, and the efficacy of added sodium selenite in extended semen on sperm motility. J Anim Sci 78:1544–1550

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Markle JGM, Frank DN, Mortin-Toth S et al (2013) Sex differences in the gut microbiome drive hormone-dependent regulation of autoimmunity. Science (1979) 339:1084–1088

  • Mehta P, Singh P, Gupta NJ et al (2021) Mutations in the desert hedgehog (DHH) gene in the disorders of sexual differentiation and male infertility. J Assist Reprod Genet 38:1871–1878

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Negri L, Benaglia R, Monti E et al (2017) Effect of superoxide dismutase supplementation on sperm DNA fragmentation. Archivio Italiano di Urologia e Andrologia 89:212–218

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neto FTL, Bach PV, Najari BB et al (2016) Spermatogenesis in humans and its affecting factors. Seminars in cell & developmental biology. Elsevier, pp 10–26

  • Nishimura H, L’Hernault SW (2017) Spermatogenesis Curr Biology 27:R988–R994

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sakamoto T, Imai H (2017) Hydrogen peroxide produced by superoxide dismutase SOD-2 activates sperm in Caenorhabditis elegans. J Biol Chem 292:14804–14813

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Staub C, Johnson L (2018) Review: spermatogenesis in the bull. Animal 12(s1):s27–s35

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan R, Mieusset R (2016) The human epididymis: its function in sperm maturation. Hum Reprod Update 22:574–587

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vahidi MF, Gharechahi J, Behmanesh M et al (2021) Diversity of microbes colonizing forages of varying lignocellulose properties in the sheep rumen. PeerJ 9:e10463

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Vetrano AM, Heck DE, Mariano TM et al (2005) Characterization of the oxidase activity in mammalian catalase. J Biol Chem 280(42):35372–35381.

  • Wang E, Wang J, Lv J et al (2021) Comparison of Ruminal Degradability, Indigestible Neutral Detergent Fiber, and total-tract digestibility of three main crop straws with Alfalfa Hay and Corn Silage. Animals 11:3218

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Xiang J, Bian C, Wan X et al (2018) Sleeve gastrectomy reversed obesity-induced hypogonadism in a rat model by regulating inflammatory responses in the hypothalamus and testis. Obes Surg 28:2272–2280

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao W, Jing J, Shao Y et al (2020) Circulating sex hormone levels in relation to male sperm quality. BMC Urol 20:1–7

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by the National Beef and Yak Industrial Technology System (grant numbers CARS-37), Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province (grant numbers 2022NY-050, 2022ZDLNY01-01), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 31972994), Special Project for the Central Government to Guide Local Science and Technology Development (grant numbers 2060404-51301).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, No.22 Xinong Road, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, P.R. China

    Dianqi Zhang, Sayed Haidar Abbas Raza, Xinze Du, Juze Wang, Meng Wang, Jing Ma, Chugang Mei & Linsen Zan

  2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Quality and Safety/Nation-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Machining and Safety of Livestock and Poultry Products, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Sayed Haidar Abbas Raza

  3. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Utilization and Conservation of Food and Medicinal Resources in Northern Region, Shaoguan University, Shaoguan, 512005, China

    Sayed Haidar Abbas Raza

  4. National Beef Cattle Improvement Center, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, P.R. China

    Chugang Mei & Linsen Zan

  5. Xi’an Dairy Cow Breeding Center, Xi’an Agriculture and Rural Bureau, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710000, P.R. China

    Kuncheng Xie & Jie He

  6. Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Boorooma Street, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2678, Australia

    Sameer D. Pant

  7. Biology Department, Faculty of Science, University of Ha’il, Ha’il, Saudi Arabia

    Bander Hamad Aloufi

Authors
  1. Dianqi Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sayed Haidar Abbas Raza
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xinze Du
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Juze Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Meng Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jing Ma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Kuncheng Xie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Sameer D. Pant
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Jie He
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Bander Hamad Aloufi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Chugang Mei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Linsen Zan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Dianqi Zhang drafted the manuscript and analyzed the experimental data. Sayed Haidar Abbas Raza Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Visualization Writing - review & editing. Xinze Du designed the experimental ideas and fed animals. Meng Wang, Kuncheng Xie, Jie He, Juze Wang participated in the collection of experimental samples. Dianqi Zhang, Xinze Du, and Meng Wang completed in the experiment. Dianqi Zhang and Jing Ma Chugang Mei Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation completed the manuscript. Sameer Pant and Bander Hamad Aloufi assisted in the Investigation, Visualization Writing-review and editing, and Linsen Zan participated in the management and supervision of the project. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Linsen Zan.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, D., Raza, S.H.A., Du, X. et al. Effect of feeding corn silage on semen quality and spermatogenesis of bulls. Vet Res Commun (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-023-10218-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-023-10218-7

Keywords

search

Navigation