Semen Cardona, immersed in a project against the use of antibiotics

With the increased use of refrigerated seminal doses for artificial insemination, solutions have been sought to control bacterial growth in semen, because bacteria have spermicidal effects, reduce sperm motility, affect membrane integrity plasma, induce degenerative acrosomal exocytosis, and can cause infections of the female genital tract when performing artificial insemination.

Currently, seminal doses are treated with antibiotics, the use and addition of which are regulated by Directive 90/429 / EEC of the European Commission and by state legislation (RD 1148/1992; 106/2010 and 176/2012). However, the restriction in the use of antibiotics has been increasing, as a consequence, among other reasons, that bacteria may develop resistance.

For all these reasons, Semen Cardona, together with the University of Girona (Technosperm), aims to replace the current commercial conservation means with others that do not contain antibiotics, but antimicrobial peptides.

The main objective of this project is to obtain a pig sperm sanitization method that allows the collection, conservation, and subsequent use of semen cooled by artificial insemination in an antibiotic-free environment.

Specific technical objectives:

• Evaluation of antimicrobial peptides on sperm quality in vitro.
• Validate the effectiveness of antimicrobial peptides in the production of seminal doses of male terminators (Pietrain and Duroc) in field conditions (insemination center).
• Validate the effectiveness of antimicrobial peptides in insemination centers with different environmental conditions.
• Determine the impact of antimicrobial peptides on the fertilizing power of sperm in a mothers’ farm.
• Write a working protocol for the use of antimicrobial peptides in the preparation of seminal doses.
• Disseminate the results obtained.

With the financing of: