Effect of foot and mouth disease vaccination on seminal traits in pure Holstein Friesian bulls

The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of foot and mouth disease vaccination on seminal traits of 30 Holstein Friesian (HF) bulls, 3–5 years old, maintained at BAIF Central Research Station, Uruli Kanchan, Pune, India. The study period was from August to September 2013 and semen quality traits were evaluated on each bull maintained under identical feeding and management regimes. A total of 180 semen ejaculates were collected with one ejaculate from each bull at 3 days interval in a week at 15 days before, 15 and 30 days after FMD vaccination. Raksha Ovac vaccine of Indian Immunologicals Ltd. was used for vaccination purpose. Seminal traits like fresh and post thaw sperm motility, sperm concentration, semen volume, live and dead count, plasma membrane integrity were evaluated for all the ejaculates. Data on seminal traits were analysed by using one way ANOVA. Results revealed that vaccination had significant (P<0.05) effect on post thaw motility and highly significant (P<0.01) deleterious effect on HOS test, head and mid piece abnormalities; however no effect was noted on ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, initial motility, viability and tail abnormalities. The observations showed that vaccination alters the seminal traits of pure HF bulls.