Environmental Factors Affecting the Reproductive Efficiency of Italian Simmental Young Bulls

Abstract

The objectives of the study aimed to evaluate the effect of weather conditions and scrotal circumference (SC) on standard semen characteristics of Italian Simmental young bulls (n = 577), all raised in the same performance station and sampled by the artificial vagina (AV) method. Considering the increasing SC, the results showed a significant increase in quantitative semen parameters (p < 0.05 and p < 0.0001, for sperm concentration and total number of spermatozoa, respectively); for every extra centimeter of SC, 17.5 × 106 spermatozoa/mL and 0.102 × 109 of total spermatozoa were produced. The age of the animal at semen collection (395 and 465 days) had similar positive effects. The effect of the average temperature humidity index (THI limits ≤ 40 and ≥70) in the previous 60, 30, and 10 days before the semen collection was also considered. Sixty days before the semen collection, the increasing THI increased both primary (p < 0.0001) and secondary (p < 0.0001) abnormalities while the percentage of morphologically normal spermatozoa decreased (p < 0.0001). Thirty and ten days before collection, the same effect on morphological traits was maintained, but total and progressive motility was also influenced (p < 0.01) with an unexpected increasing pattern. Thus, environmental conditions can influence semen quality during the entire spermatogenesis and results can guide future research on this breed.