Bacteriospermia among smallholder artificial insemination boars in the Philippines and potential associated factors

Objective: To determine the prevalence of bacteriospermia, the bacterial load, and the potential factors associated with bacterial contamination in boar semen collected by local smallholder artificial insemination operators. Methods: Fifteen individual raw semen samples were collected from locally available artificial insemination boars owned by different smallholder boar operators within the 5th district of Leyte, Philippines and were subjected to standard bacteriological culture and identification, including a survey of potentially associated factors. Prevalence and bacterial count were determined accordingly, while boar characteristics and collection practices were clustered following agglomerative hierarchical clustering technique. Results: One hundred percent contamination with a bacterial count of (2.01±0.38)×103 CFU/mL was observed. At least 73.33% of the samples were positive for Bacillus spp., while other identified isolates included Enterobacter spp., Staphylococcus spp., E. coli, Pseudomonas spp., Citrobacter spp., and Klebsiella spp. Conclusions: Despite the high prevalence of bacteriospermia, the bacterial count is low. Nevertheless, on-farm practices on boar health and management, semen collection, and sanitation as well as the enhancement of basic protocols to control contamination should be conscientiously considered in smallholder artificial insemination operation.