The Slovak University of Agriculture
949 76 Nitra
The Slovak Republic
* The State Breeding Institute
949 92 Nitra
The Slovak Republic
This paper was originally presented at the international symposium organized on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the birth of Prof. Peter Popesko, M.V.D., D.Sc., held at The University of Veterinary Medicine, Košice on 2 June 2000
Summary
The contamination of bovine semen, used for artificial insemination, with cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, as well as its relation to spermatozoa quality was investigated. Analysis by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) of cadmium showed the average concentration was 0.0058 mg/kg. The concentration of copper was in the range of 0.2-1.0 mg/kg with an average value of 0.515 mg/kg. The contamination of bovine insemination doses with lead reached an average value of 0.320 mg/kg and the concentration of zinc reached 6.5-14.2 mg/kg with an average value of 8.645 mg/kg. The analysis of semen activity recorded a higher value before freezing - Activity 1 (49.00 ± 25.88 %), and a lower value after freezing - Activity 2 (34.25 ± 5.68 %).
Analysis of the pathological spermatozoa found 9.83 % of them abnormal as follows: 2.95% with a detached flagellum, 2.88% with a flagellum torso, 1.73% with a knob twisted flagellum, 0.45% with small heads, 0.32% with a flagellum ball, 0.27% with a retention of the cytoplasmic drop, 0.22 % with big heads, 0.09% with acrosomal changes, 0.09% with a broken flagellum, and 0.83 % with other forms of pathological changes. The highest numbers of pathological changes where those with separated flagellum (29.79%), a flagellum torso (28.97%), and with a knob twisted flagellum (17.69%).
Correlation analysis determined a high correlation between cadmium and copper (P < 0.0002), cadmium and lead (P < 0.0001), copper and lead (P < 0.0005), between the semen activity before and after freezing (P < 0.0005). A high correlation between zinc and spermatozoa with separated flagellum as well as between cytoplasmic drop and other forms of pathological spermatozoa was found.
From our results it may be suggested that the contamination of semen with heavy metals has a direct effect on spermatozoa quality.
