Small Ruminant Breeding Soundness Exams

Breeding soundness exams (BSE) before ram or buck turnout can prevent headaches and save money in the long run. There are many things that can cause reduced fertility, and in turn, less lambs or kids to sell at weaning. A good BSE can help prevent you from finding out at pregnancy checking time, lambing or kidding that your male didn’t get females bred. A BSE consists of many parts to ensure your male is capable of breeding females:

Comprehensive health exam

Overall health of an animal can greatly impact its reproductive performance. If an animal has systemic illness, both semen quality and the buck or ram’s desire to breed can be reduced.If you are bringing in new males for breeding, consider your operation’s biosecurity. It is best practice to quarantine these animals for 30 days and possibly even perform some disease testing before introducing them to your flock or herd. There are many diseases in small ruminants that can cause long term consequences for your flock health such as Caseous Lymphadenitis and Contagious Ecthyma (orf).

Body Condition Scoring (BCS) in small ruminants is on a 1 to 5 scale with 3 to 4 being optimal. During breeding season, it is common for males to lose weight because of increased energy expenditure. They need to go into the breeding season with plenty of energy reserves so weight loss during this time won’t leave them in a deficit.

Leg and foot soundness, or conversely lameness, is also assessed during a breeding soundness exam. These males need to be able to cover a lot of ground and comfortably mount females. This is also a great time to trim hooves if needed.

During the exam, external genitalia are assessed. The scrotum is measured and testicles palpated. Scrotal circumference can be correlated to fertility and number of females that can be bred. Some common reproductive diseases can be suspected based on testicular or epididymal swelling or firmness. Final diagnosis may require additional testing, but palpation is the best first step to identify a problem.

The penis is also examined as part of the physical exam. An electro ejaculator is used to collect a semen sample. When the probe is placed rectally and stimulation begins, the penis will exteriorize from the sheath. This allows for visualization and assessment of the anatomy of the penis and the ability of the penis to fully exteriorize. Past penile injuries or physical deformities can greatly reduce a male’s ability to impregnate females.

2) Semen analysis

Once all external factors are deemed satisfactory for breeding, a semen sample is collected. It is then analyzed under a microscope for 2 main factors: motility and morphology.

Motility : Sperm motility is the ability of sperm to move in a forward direction. Just because a sample has sperm in it doesn’t mean that the sperm are capable of getting through the female reproductive tract to the egg. Closely analyzing sperm movement on a slide can be a great indicator of sperm’s forward movement ability. This is often seen as a large swirling motion on a microscope slide. If sperm are dead, extremely slow, or just wiggling in place on the slide, this is a negative indicator of sperm motility.

Morphology: Sperm morphology is analyzing the shape of sperm and examining the distinct parts such as the head and tail. There are many defects that can be present in sperm and these defects make it unable to successfully fertilize an egg. While it is normal to have a small percentage of sperm showing a defect, the majority of sperm need to appear totally normal for a sample to be considered adequate. Abnormalities in sperm morphology can result in abnormal sperm movement or the inability to appropriately fertilize the egg.

Other Abnormalities: Other findings such as white or red blood cells in the sample can also occasionally be found in semen samples. These cells can indicate infection or injury, which will negatively impact the quality of semen the ram or buck is producing.

Breeding Classification

All of these factors are considered when deciding if the animal is a good breeding candidate for your flock. The ram or buck will be classified into one of 3 different categories:

1)       Satisfactory: The ram or buck displays adequate health and semen quality. He is ready to be turned out to breed females.

2)       Deferred: Today the animal is not of adequate health or semen quality, but in 3 to 4 weeks, he should be rechecked and may be ready to breed at that time.

3)       Failed: This animal is not a satisfactory breeder and will likely not return to fertile. A new ram or buck should be identified for breeding.

It is important to understand that a breeding soundness exam is just a snapshot in time. Just because an animal is satisfactory today doesn’t mean that it will remain so throughout the duration of the breeding season. Insults such as heat or illness can decrease semen quality for a period of time but animals can often recover from this. However, males are unable to recover fertility following some things like severe scrotal frost bite or penile injuries.

You can look at breeding soundness exams as an insurance policy of sorts. It can give you confidence that your ram or buck is ready to breed at the time of turnout. It is best to complete these BSEs before the start of your breeding season, but also early enough that you can find a replacement breeder if your buck or ram is not deemed a satisfactory breeder. 

Reach out to us at Apogee Animal Health with any questions or to schedule your breeding soundness exams today!