Research Article

Reproductive Indicators of Stud Bulls and Bull Calves of the Kazakh White Breed of Various Genotypes

E Nassambaev*, AB Akhmetalieva, AE Nugmanova, RM Kulbaev

West Kazakhstan Agrarian Technical University named after Zhangir Khan, Uralsk, Zhangir Khan Str., 51, 090009, Republic of Kazakhstan.

Received | June 12, 2019; Accepted | August 30, 2019; Published | October 15, 2019

*Correspondence | E Nassambaev, West Kazakhstan Agrarian Technical University named after Zhangir Khan, Uralsk, Zhangir Khan str., 51, Republic of Kazakhstan, 090009; Email: [email protected]

Citation | Nassambaev E, Akhmetalieva AB, Nugmanova AE, Kulbaev RM (2019). Reproductive indicators of stud bulls and bull calves of the kazakh white breed of various genotypes. Adv. Anim. Vet. Sci. 7(s1): 85-87.

DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.aavs/2019/7.s1.85.87

ISSN (Online) | 2307-8316; ISSN (Print) | 2309-3331

Copyright © 2019 Nassambaev et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

INTRODUCTION

Global trends show that in the countries with the developed agrarian sector, the share of livestock breeding products takes a large part of agricultural production, and, as a rule, intensive animal breeding plays a major role in the industry development.

However, in our country, along with the improvements, national programs of agriculture development, crisis phenomena remain in livestock breeding, which results in a reduction of the livestock population, increasing the dependence on imported meat and milk, reduced productivity, and deterioration of the breeding qualities of animals.

Analyzing the achievements of domestic and foreign science accumulated over the last 15–20 years in studying the problems of cattle reproduction, and rating them, it should be noted that today the etiological and pathogenetic essence of cattle breeding has been disclosed, effective diagnostic methods have been developed, and scientific advice has been given. However, these developments help solve the problems of treatment and active prevention of infertility mainly in females (cows, bred heifers, and heifers); as to the problem of infertility in stud bulls, these problems have been very poorly studied and described in the literature (Kombarova, 2007).

The decreased livestock population, deterioration of reproduction, and decreased amount of artificial insemination narrowed the scope of breeding valuable genotypes of the stud bulls that improved domestic breeds with high adaptability to the local climatic conditions. Import of cattle to unprepared economies results in the fact that after 2–3 years the animals are withdrawn from the herd (Ernst, 1982).

Reproductive efficiency largely depends on the stress resistance and the adaptive abilities of the animals, which have specific and individual characteristics of adaptivity to the varying environmental conditions (Dvalishvili et al., 2005).

Adaptation shows the degree of environmental compliance to the biological needs of animals, and their biological needs are manifested in productivity, health and reproductive capacity (Subbotin, 1980).

Considering the improvement of the breeds and breed zoning, one should admit impracticality of the ongoing mass absorption crossing of the breed adapted to the specific local climatic conditions, where they lose the valuable adaptive qualities of the source cattle breeds, and the duration of commercial use of cattle reduces (Nasibov, 2004).

Currently, there is a need to study the dynamics of spermatological indicators of the semen of stud bulls, and to determine the importance of stud bulls’ origin within each breed, as well as to study the possibility of predicting their sperm productivity.

Currently, young bulls are selected by their origin, exterior, and development. Since stud bulls greatly influence the herd and the breed in general, it is necessary to assess bulls by the indicators of their reproductive ability. In this regard, there is a growing need in checking the quality of stud bulls’ sperm, as it will help to identify stud bulls and bull calves with low reproductive ability.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The work was performed at the Khafizpeasant farm in the West Kazakhstan region of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study was focused on stud bulls and bull calves of the Kazakh white breed of various genotypes. Sperm production was assessed according to GOST 23745–79. Fresh nondiluted sperm of bulls. Specification and test methods by the following parameters: ejaculate volume, ml; activity, points; concentration of sperm cells in one ml, bln/ml; and the number of sperm cells in ejaculate, bln.

Digital materials were processed using biometric methods (Merkuryeva, 1970).

RESULTS

Organization of rational animal reproduction has an important economic value in beef cattle breeding management.

With the introduction of sperm deep-freezing method, the wide use of high-value bulls assessed by the quality of the offspring from a large population of females becomes possible.

Reproductive qualities of bulls are determined by many factors, including the seasons. The most important indicators of bulls’ reproductive qualities are semen quality indicators (Table 1).

In the recent years, at the Khafiz peasant farm, artificial insemination has been used for herd reproduction with the use of frozen semen from the stud bulls assessed by the quality of the offspring, along with free mating during “cleanup” of unfertilized cows and heifers. In this regard, strict requirements that are characterized by sperm amount and quality, are applied to the reproductive ability of stud bulls. With that, it is important to know the seasonal changes in the reproductive functions of the bulls.

Studying the quantitative and qualitative indicators of the sperm showed that with relatively similar amounts of ejaculate in the winter and in the summerof stud bulls of all genotypes, the amounts were the highest in stud bulls of the Landysh 9879 stud line- 4.0 to 4.8 ml, respectively. The number of sperm cells in ejaculate is an important indicator that characterizes the overall level of sperm production in stud bulls, and largely determines the number of doses for insemination that can be obtained.

The obtained data show that the greatest number of sperm cells in the winter was found in the ejaculate of bulls of stud line Landysh 9879 (4.0), and in the summer of stud lines Cactus 7969 (4.2 bln), Landysh 9879 (4.3 bln) and Korol 13682 (4.7 bln) (Table 2).

Studying the qualitative indicators of sperm production by stud bulls and bull calves of various genotypes showed that sperm saturation with gametes differed, depending on the season. For instance, the highest concentration of sperm cells in the winter was observed in bulls of stud line Landysh 9879 (1.2 bln/ml), and in bull calves of stud line Cactus 7969 (1.3 bln/ml); in the summer in stud bulls Korol 13682 (1.06 bln/ml) and in bull calves Maylan 13851 and Korol 13682 (1.0 – 1.0 bln/ml). The concentration of sperm cells in all stud bulls and bull calves decreased in the summer.

The activity of gametes was one of the main indicators used for assessing the sperm production of agricultural animals; also, directly before insemination, it characterizes sperm suitability for fertilizing the ovicell. 

Table 1: Quality indicators of sperm from stud bulls of various genotypes.

Table 2: Quality indicators of sperm from bull calves of various genotypes.