Effect of water sprinkling during the hot-dry summer season on semen quality of Holstein bulls in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

AbstractTen Holstein bulls, 4 to 5 years old were used to study the effect of cooling the bulls on their semen quality. Five bulls were sprinkled with water for 15 min five times a day throughout a 6-week period of the summer season (hot-dry) in Saudi Arabia, and the other five bulls acted as the control and were not sprinkled with water. Semen quality was improved significantly during the cooling period. This improvement was evident from the significant increase in sperm motility (P < 0·01) and decrease in the percentage of both dead and morphologically abnormal (primary and secondary) spermatozoa per ejaculate of cooled bulls (P < 0·01). The effect of cooling was more marked through the last 3 weeks than during the first 3 weeks of the experimental period. Ejaculate volume, sperm concentration and hence total sperm counts did not differ significantly between the cooled and the non-cooled bulls. Concerning the type of abnormal spermatozoa, the overall secondary abnormality was higher than the primary in both the cooled and the control groups, with higher values for the control (P < 0·01). Only the mid piece showed higher primary defects than the secondary. The pyriform heads, the coiled mid pieces and tails and the bent tails were the main sources of variations (P < 0·01) in the incidence of sperm abnormality between the cooled and the non-cooled bulls. Cooling the bulls during the heat stress period also lowered their rectal temperature and increased blood haemoglobin level without affecting the packed cell volume