Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Semen problems in dogs with Leishmania improve after 150 days
By Assis, Viviane Pedersoli et al.·Published in Animal reproduction science·2010·Departamento de Medicina Veteriná, Brazil·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Dogs with Leishmania chagasi infection have semen abnormalities that partially revert during 150 days of Allopurinol and Amphotericin B therapy.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs infected with Leishmania chagasi showed poor semen quality, which improved somewhat after 150 days of treatment with Allopurinol and Amphotericin B. Initially, the dogs had low sperm motility and a high percentage of abnormal sperm, but by the end of the treatment, their semen quality partially reverted to more normal levels. While the treatment helped, the dogs still had some defects in their sperm compared to healthy dogs. This suggests that male dogs with this infection may not be suitable for breeding due to ongoing issues with their semen quality.
People also search for: dog semen quality treatment · Leishmania chagasi in dogs · Allopurinol for dog infections
Abstract
The goal of the present study was to characterize the semen quality of dogs naturally infected with Leishmaniachagasi, and treated with Allopurinol and Amphotericin B. Eight naturally infected and eight non-infected dogs were selected. Following semen collection, progressive motility, vigor, concentration and sperm morphology were evaluated. The seminal patterns in the treated animals were evaluated at the beginning (d0) and at days 30 (d30), 60 (d60) and 150 (d150) of treatment. The progressive motility at d0 (35.7+/-22.3%) was less than that of the control group (77.8+/-7.1%) (P<0.05). The vigor was similar to the control group throughout the treatment (P>0.05). The number of sperm/mL, sperm/ejaculate and sperm/kg of body weight was similar among groups (P>0.05). The percentages of normal spermatozoa of infected and treated animals were similar throughout the treatment and to the control group (69.1+/-8.7%) at d60 (37.5+/-11.2%) and d150 (48.3+/-10.8%) (P>0.05), but smaller at d0 (22.7+/-10.5%) and d30 (28.8+/-15.9%) (P<0.05). A greater percentage of acrosome damage was observed in the control group (3.1+/-2.3%) compared to the d60 (0.1+/-0.2%) (P<0.05). The infected dogs had a greater percentage of principal piece defects at d60 (37.0+/-6.3%) than the control group (16.8+/-7.3%) (P<0.05); and greater percentages of detached normal heads at d0 (28.7+/-19.7%) and d30 (18.5+/-18.5%) than the control group (0.4+/-0.5%) (P<0.05). This reduction in semen quality of the infected animals is suggestive of an epididymal dysfunction. Due to this poor semen quality, caution is recommended when using infected male dogs for reproductive purposes.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19345025/