Factors Affecting Copulatory Ability in Male Animals and Their Treatment

Factors affecting copulatory ability in male animals include nutrition, health, age, management, psychological state, and hormonal balance.

Hormonal imbalances, such as low testosterone or thyroid issues, can reduce libido and fertility in male animals. Conditions like hypothyroidism or hypogonadism may lead to sexual dysfunction and decreased semen quality.

Early diagnosis and treatment, including hormone therapy, can help restore reproductive health and improve copulatory ability in affected males.

Factors Affecting Copulatory Ability

Factors affecting copulatory ability in male animals include:

1. Nutrition
2. Systemic Diseases
3. Age
4. Management
5. Psychological Factors
6. Hypothyroidism, Hypogonadism Or Pituitary Deficiency

1. Nutrition

Thin emaciated semi starved males or those suffering from deficiencies of TDN, vitamin A, protein and certain minerals such as phosphorus and cobalt may have a definitely reduced sex desire.

Inanition is severe enough a complete lack of libido results.

Low level of energy diet in growing males delays the puberty and onset of libido.

Overfed animals tend to become obese and lazy, often suffer from joint and foot troubles which may lead to lack of sexual desire.

Excessive roughage fed to the bulls and rams may cause great enlargement of the rumen and abdomen interfering with normal, easy copulation and contributing to a lack of sexual desire.

2. Systemic Diseases

Any chronic or acute, severe debilitating diseases resulting in rapid or prolonged loss of weight, or in anorexia, depression and weakness will cause a varying degree of loss of sexual desire.

These diseases may include:

• Pneumonia
• Enteritis
• Tuberculosis
• Para tuberculosis
• Severe mange and pediculosis
• Actinomycosis
• Lymphocytoma
• Progressive fat necrosis
• Severe internal parasitosis
• Advanced metastatic tumors
• Alveolar periostitis
• Traumatic gastritis
• Severe chronic peritonitis and others.

3. Age

Too young and too old animals usually exhibit a reduced to complete lack of sexual desire.

In older animals this may be due to decline in testosterone level, senility, loss of condition, overuse or to arthritis.

Inexperience in young male should not be confused with lack of sex desire.

4. Management

The management practice plays a major role which affects the sexual desire of male livestock.

Libido will vary with the animals depending upon their inherent sex derive and the way they are trained, handled and managed.

Young males should be carefully, patiently, quietly trained and handled, especially if they are to have their semen collected in artificial vagina.

If a male associates “sex” with pain or punishment, he may decide to give up “sex”.

Slow breeders can be easily discouraged and made slower by the insertion of a nose ring in a bull, harsh or abusive handling of the male by attendants, improper restraint of the mount animal, improper footing, mount animals that are not in estrum or are too tall or wide, use of an artificial vagina that is too cold or hot, improper preparation of the male for mounting, breeding large males in a confined area with a low ceiling, unskilled persons using an artificial vagina and excessive use of a male.

Males lacking libido if continually used on the same female for semen collection frequently develop sexual indifference or satiation.

Frequent changing of stimulus or mount animal and the collection and breeding site are indicated in bulls inclined to show a lack of libido.

The presence of other males near the mount animal or in sight of the breeding male provides further stimulus.

Frequent changing of the mount animals, allowing several ‘false’ mounts where copulation is not allowed and moving the male to several different sites for teasing or stewing.

Some stallions and jacks with low desire will fail to copulate with mares that are well-scrubbed and the tails bandaged. Others so vigorously bite the withers and neck of the mare after mounting that erection is lost. Muzzling if these males is indicated.

Stallions will perform intromission and make thrusting movements but fail to ejaculate. This is common in stallions with reduced libido that are being used too frequently for their reproductive capacity.

The failure to ejaculate can be noted by careful observation of the stallion at copulation by the:

• Absence of  the usual flagging of the tail
• Absence of the pulsations of the penile urethra
• The failure of the stallion on dismounting to be content and relaxed and also
• The lack of spermatozoa in the tail end sample of ejaculate collected from the penis as the stallion dismounts.

5. Psychological Factors

Males with a genetically lowered sexual desire are much apt to develop this apparent psychic refusal to breed.

Some bulls with apparent psychic impotency may actually be affected with lesion of spinal columns.

These bulls could apparently have good sexual desire, mount rapidly, have lordosis in the lumbar region and the penis could be directed to escutcheon well below the vulva.

Rapid pelvic thrusts and seeking motions for vulva would occur but penile exposure was greatly reduced.

A prolonged period of sexual rest, a change in the site of copulation and careful preparation may be necessary to encourage the psychic males to again start to breed.

Shyness or slowness also noticed in boars.

6. Hypothyroidism, Hypogonadism Or Pituitary Deficiency

Based on the results of hormonal therapy, it is understood that a lack of hormones is not a common cause of lack of sexual desire in male animals.

Prognosis

Prognosis is guarded to poor depending upon the cause and the degree of the inherited or acquired lack of libido.

For bulls affected with a lack of libido is often requires 3 to 6 months of proper handling for sexual desire to improve after adverse environmental influences have been corrected.

Treatment

Treatment should be given after:

• Careful collection of the male’s breeding history.
• Thorough physical examination of the male and
• Repeated observations of the male during coitus.
• Proper amounts of good quality grain and roughage should be provided to reduce obesity (if present) or to increases the body weight (if the male is too thin).
• Sufficient exercise should be provided.
• Chronic disease status especially parasitism in young males should be corrected if possible.
• The virility of the male should be assessed and the frequency of services should be reduced.
• A period of several months sexual rest is desirable in males that have been excessively over used.
• Changing the site of semen collection.
• Good footing and proper ceiling height in the semen collection yard.
• Proper restraining of the female or teasers while service or semen collection.
• Care, consideration and patience in the handling of the slow breeding male.
• If Artificial Vagina (AV) is used, skilled operator is essential.
• The AV should neither too warmnor too cold and adequate pressure should be applied to the penis.
• Frequent changes of teasers and a longer period of teasing is often helpful.
• Libido can be restored by allowing the male to stay with one or more quiet non-pregnant females.
• As a last resort when the condition fails to respond semen may be collected by using electro ejaculator in bulls, rams and boars and in dogs by using digital manipulator.
• Drugs and hormone treatments are of questionable value in most males lacking sex desire.

Testosterone may be used but it is not the specific treatment for improving the libido in males. Prolonged high level of testosterone therapy may cause testicular degeneration and atrophy of testis.

Dose of testosterone (repeated every 5-10 days for several times) in animals:

• Bull: 100-500 mg
• Stallion: 100-500 mg
• Ram: 50-100 mg
• Boar: 50-100 mg
• Dogs: 10-50 mg

One or more injection of human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG) at 4-7 days intervals in doses of 3000-4500 IU for large animals and 100-500 IU for dogs may help to stimulate testosterone production. This is the specific treatment in males to improve the libido.

Pure LH preparation can also be used.

Males that are obese and lazy possibly due to a hypothyroid condition may benefit from feeding Iodinated Casein with 3 percent thyroxine potency at a rate of 1gm per 100 lb body weight daily.

Glucocorticoids are also used with questionable success.

Injections of vitamins and feeding of trace minerals; protein and iodine have little value in in most of the slow breeding males.