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The Effect of Penicillin upon the Fertility of Semen from Relatively Infertile Bulls¹

Department of Dairy Husbandry, The Pennsylvania State College, State College

ABSTRACT

Penicillin was added to the semen of five relatively infertile bulls at the rate of 250, 500, 750 and 1,000 units per ml. of diluter. Based on 3,576 inseminations, levels of penicillin of 500 and 1,000 units brought about highly significant increases in fertility of 13.4 and 15.3 per cent of the cows inseminated, respectively. The 250 and 750 unit concentrations each showed average increases of 8.7 percentage units over the controls and these differences approached significance. Greatest improvement in breeding efficiency was obtained with 1,000 units of penicillin per ml. of diluter.

The variation in results among the bulls indicated that penicillin had a very beneficial effect upon the semen from certain bulls of lowered fertility, while failing to be of significant value when added to the semen of other bulls. Thus, three of the five bulls showed large increases in fertility of 14.5, 21.1 and 31.6 percentage units when 1,000 units of penicillin were added per ml. of diluter. Of the remaining bulls, one showed a small increase of 4.1 per cent while the other showed no beneficial response.

¹ Authorized for publication June 20, 1949, as paper no. 1526 in the Journal Series of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station. The penicillin was provided by Charles Pfizer and Co., Inc., Brooklyn, New York.