Non-Surgical Castration in Bucks A Comparative Study between Chemical Castration and External Ligation of the Spermatic Cord

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of intra-testicular injection of formalin and external ligation of the spermatic cord in inducing sterilization in bucks. Twelve's adult bucks were used which allocated randomly and equally into three groups. The first group served as a control group injected (5) ml distilled water intra-testicular, while the second group injected (5) ml of 3% formalin and in the third group external ligation of spermatic cord with silk was used.Blood samples were collected from all bucks prior and post to treatment to assay serum testosterone level. In addition, semen samples were collected via artificial vagina to evaluate some semen parameters.Clinical follow-up of animals revealed no any secondary complications in control group, while treatment group showed certain minor complications such as testicular swelling, hydrocele, scrotal ulcer and lameness which disappeared in a short time.Results indicated that testosterone level were significantly decline P<0.05 in the second and third groups, it reached to (0.30±0.05) and (1.66±0.25) ng/ml respectively at the end of experiment.All semen parameters were significantly P<0.05 decreased on days 21 and 28 in treatment groups, in which there was seminal plasma only, absence of sperm motility, zero sperm concentration and no viable sperms.All animals subjected to traditional castration on 30 and 60 days post-injection or ligation to harvested testicular biopsies for histopathological examination. Testicular sections revealed depletion of sertoli cells and interstitial fibrosis which replaced leydig cells. These changes were more severe in chemical group when compared with ligation group. This means that both techniques reflected their ability to impair or stop the testicular functions with superiority of chemical castration.