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Bacteriospermia among smallholder artificial insemination boars in the Philippines and potential associated factors
Authors: Santiago T. Peña Jr., Ma. Delia A. Pagente, Bianca Therese P. Ymas, Mark Edd B. Janier
Number of views: 33
Objective: To determine the prevalence of bacteriospermia, the
bacterial load, and the potential factors associated with bacterial
contamination in boar semen collected by local smallholder artificial
insemination operators.
Methods: Fifteen individual raw semen samples were collected
from locally available artificial insemination boars owned by
different smallholder boar operators within the 5th district of Leyte,
Philippines and were subjected to standard bacteriological culture
and identification, including a survey of potentially associated
factors. Prevalence and bacterial count were determined accordingly,
while boar characteristics and collection practices were clustered
following agglomerative hierarchical clustering technique.
Results: One hundred percent contamination with a bacterial count
of (2.01±0.38)X103 CFU/mL was observed. At least 73.33% of
the samples were positive for Bacillus spp., while other identified
isolates included Enterobacter spp., Staphylococcus spp., E. coli,
Pseudomonas spp., Citrobacter spp., and Klebsiella spp.
Conclusions: Despite the high prevalence of bacteriospermia, the
bacterial count is low. Nevertheless, on-farm practices on boar
health and management, semen collection, and sanitation as well as
the enhancement of basic protocols to control contamination should
be conscientiously considered in smallholder artificial insemination
operation.