TDK conference 2019

The past decade number of beef cattle breeders increased in Hungary. According to this development, breeders required high-quality bulls, with good fertility. It is important due to the breeding goals, selection and also for selling bulls.

The aim of our study was to compare the morphology and function of younger and older bull's reproductive organ's and detect relationships between the ultrasound images of testicles, epididymis, seminal vesicles (on a 256 grey scale) and sperm motility (assessed by portable CASA system) and morphology (DIC method).

In our studies 160 breeding bulls have been involved, mainly Charolais and Blonde D'Aquitaine in 2018 and in Spring of 2019, in Hungary. During the examinations we recorded the circumferences of the testes, photos were taken with a thermo camera from the testes, and ultrasound examinations have been carried out (testes, epididymis, and the seminal vesicles). After that, the semen collection was carried out by using electro ejaculator, and sperm characteristics (motility and morphology) has been investigated.

We found that younger bulls had a lower average of gray level on ultrasound images, and also the rate of morphological and motility abnormalities were less.

It could be concluded, that morphological and functional examinations are essential in the evaluation of bull’s fertility, and an accurate diagnosis can only be made by an overall evaluation of the results.