Early age infection of Foot and Mouth Disease affects the reproductive performance in Frieswal males

Abstract

Semen production performance of adult Frieswal bulls suffered from Foot and Mouth disease infection (FMD) at an early
_ age (upto I yr) were compared with bulls of similar age group unaffected by FMD. A significant reduction in the semen donation was
evident in bulls suffered with FMD at early age as compared to unaffected bulls of similar age. The mean values of semen quality in
terms of volume (3.27±0.19 vs 4.0±0.19 ml) and mass motility (1.6±0.16 vs 2.5±0.10) were significantly lowered in males suffered
with Rv!D. Study further revealed that freezable quality semen could only be obtained from only 20% of bulls suffered from FMD as
compared to 73% in non affected group. These findings indicate that FMD infection at early age (upto I yr) affects the future semen
production performance in Frieswal bulls.