THE DEPENDENCE OF SPERM PROGRESSIVE MOTILITY AND SEMINAL PLASMA BIOCHEMICAL COMPOSITION ON BACTERIAL LOAD IN DUROC BOAR SEMEN

Abstract

Interactions between spermatozoa and bacterial species in ejaculates comes along with deleterious effects on the structure and function of male gametes. However, the effect of bacterial load on the seminal plasma remains unexplored. Therefore, this study was focused on the identification of bacterial species present in Duroc boar semen (n=18), quantification of the bacterial load (CFU) and alterations to the biochemical parameters of seminal plasma. The computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA) analysed the progressive motility (PRO; motility≥25µm/s) of spermatozoa, their concentration and kinematic parameters. The MALDI Biotyper was used for the bacterial characterization of fresh ejaculates. Seminal plasma was separated and biochemical analysis was carried out using the Randox RX Monza analyzer. Calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), total proteins (TP), aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), cholesterol (CHOL), bilirubin (BR), albumins (ALB) and uric acid (UA) were subjected to the Pearson correlation with CFU and PRO. The bacterial identification showed the prevalence of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The correlation analysis showed that the progressive motility of spermatozoa was strongly dependent (-0.799; P<0.01) on the seminal bacterial load. Moreover, a negative significant correlation (-0.810; P<0.001) was detected between CFU and Mg concentration. Also ALT (-0.647; P<0.01) and ALB (-0.484; P<0.05) were negatively affected by the bacterial load. Altogether, the presence of bacterial species may adversely affect the progressive motility as well as the biochemical composition of seminal plasma and thereby create unfavorable conditions for the sperm survival. Further analyses are necessary to reveal interactions between semen and bacteria.