Page 17 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Summer of the zombie sperm: Heat stress-induced DNA damage and its mitigation in boar spermatozoa
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DR Damien Paris gave quite a memorable pres- entation at this year’s Australian Pig Veteri- narians Annual Confer- ence.
‘Pork is the most con- sumed meat in the world and summer infertility equals reduced reproduc- tive performance, costing the industry $300 million annually in the US.’
The thermal comfort zone of pigs is 16-26C and tropical countries ex- ceed these temperatures in summer easily, with spermatogenesis in boars impaired above 29C.
Boars are vulnerable to heat stress due to inef- ficient sweating and non- pendulous scrotum.
Libido, semen volume, sperm concentration and mobility decreases, while abnormal sperm and dis- turbed testosterone pro- duction increases.
Sperm DNA may be sus- ceptible to damage due to loss of cytosolic repair mechanisms during matu- ration.
In pigs, 1.5 fewer em- bryos survive conceived from heat stressed boars.
However, important links between heat stress and DNA damage in boar
sperm is still missing. Damien and his team are working on figuring out what those missing links
are.
The aims of their project
are to:
• Determine effect of
summer heat stress on boar sperm quality and DNA integrity; and
• Evaluate therapeutic effect of antioxidant sup- plements.
The goal is to prove boars can significantly contribute to summer in- fertility in sows and devel- op a mitigation strategy to solve the problem. Methods - sperm DNA fragmentation
• Sperm purified by 40/80 Percoll gradient centrifugation;
• Breaks in 3’-OH end of sperm DNA labelled by TdT-mediated dUTP Nick End Labelling and nucleus counterstained
with DAPI; and
• 20,000 sperm/boar/
treatment evaluated by flow cytometry. Antioxidant supplemen- tation
• Boar feed supplement- ed with 100g/boar/day custom-made antioxidant during summer; and
• Semen collection.
Temperature and sperm concentration
• Summer lower than winter but did not differ to spring;
• Consistent with previ- ous studies; and
• Did not improve after 42 or 84 days antioxidant treatment.
Results - sperm DNA fragmentation
• Summer increase 16-fold higher than winter and nine-fold higher than spring;
• Significant decrease after 42 and 84 days anti- oxidant treatment;
• More than 6 percent DFI cause decrease in piglets born per litter;
• First definitive link between heat stress and DNA damage in boar sperm; and
• Developed first puta- tive mitigation strategy to improve DNA integrity of boar sperm during sum- mer.
Sperm motility
• However, summer did not differ to winter or spring;
•Contrasts with previ- ous studies;
• Did not affect motil- ity after 42 and 84 days antioxidant treatment; and
• Traditional measures of sperm motility do not detect inherently compro- mised or improved sperm. Conclusion
• Summer induces DNA damage and reduces sperm concentration with- out depressing sperm mo- tility;
• Traditional evaluation of sperm motility may not detect inherently compro- mised or improved sperm;
• Heat stress-induced, DNA damaged sperm from boars may contrib- ute significantly to early embryo loss in sows; and
• Antioxidant therapy during summer appears to significantly alleviate heat stress-induced DNA damage but not concentra- tion nor motility in boar sperm.
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Australian Pork Newspaper, October 2019 – Page 17
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Dr Damien Paris
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