Giving Duroc boars taxifolin, an antioxidant and anti-tumor drug, has been found to increase their sperm quality.
According to research published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, scientists have found that adding taxifolin (TAX) to the boars' feed resulted in a significant increase in their sperm motility, as well as increasing beneficial blood proteins and decreasing harmful gut bacteria.
Motility refers to how sperm moves and how many cells in a sperm sample are moving in a progressive/straight manner.
Semen quality is defined by the concentration and motility of the sperm cells in the ejaculate. In humans, semen quality has been steadily decreasing over recent years, by an estimated 50 percent worldwide between 1973 and 2011, leading to a spike in infertility rates. The reasons for this may include environmental toxins, high fat diets and a variety of other factors.
"Semen quality is based both on the motility and morphology (the presence or absence of deformities of the sperm cells that can hinder movement or their ability to fertilize an egg cell)," Tasha Gruhot, a geneticist and previously an animal breeding researcher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, told Newsweek.
TAX is a flavonoid compound found in Douglas firs, grapes and oranges. It is thought to act as an anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor chemical, and as a result has been used in food additives, health products and medicines.
The researchers fed Duroc boars TAX at 15 mg per kg of body weight for several weeks, and found that the animals experienced increased levels of proteins, including ZAG, PKA, CatSper and p-ERK in their semen. They also saw increases in the blood concentration of testosterone derivatives, melatonin and betaine, unsaturated fatty acids such as DHA, and beneficial amino acids such as proline.
TAX also decreased the concentrations of various harmful bile acids in blood plasma, increased "good" gut bacteria and decreased "bad" bacteria.
According to the authors, these results indicate that TAX improves the semen quality of boars by improving the gut microbiota and blood metabolome.
"Semen quality is important in swine production (including the Duroc breed) as the majority of matings are performed via artificial insemination," Gruhot said. "Artificial insemination is used so that elite boars are able to breed a larger number of females and females at different locations, which would not be possible if natural mating was utilized.
"This allows pork producers to more quickly make genetic progress in economically important traits, as well as traits such as health and sustainability, and to better control disease risk by not having to move live animals farm to farm for matings."
"If semen quality is poor, that semen may be discarded and not used for matings which in turn does not allow for that boar's superior genetics to be disseminated among the sow population. Semen with poor quality is discarded as semen quality has an effect on both conception rate and [numbers of live births], both of which are important traits in the swine industry."
The authors say in the paper that TAX therefore may be a good feed additive for improving the semen quality of boars, and thus "increasing the conception rate and litter size of sows to meet demands for pork consumption."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Jess Thomson is a Newsweek Science Reporter based in London UK. Her focus is reporting on science, technology and healthcare. ... Read more
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