The spermicidal effect of ethylene dibromide in bulls and rams

Abstract

The spermicidal effect of ethylene dibromide (EDB) in bulls and rams is reviewed. Following oral or parenteral administration EDB was found to cause, by its alkylating effect in the testes of treated bulls and rams, lysis of the chromatin of the elongating spermatids during the time of somatin histones replacement by the sperm protamines. However, while in the bulls the abnormal spermatozoa issued from the affected spermatids were also collected in the ejaculates, this was not the case with treated rams. In the latter animals the abnormal spermatids seem to be phagocytized in the epididymis before their arrival in the ejaculate. In addition, whereas the alkylating effect of EDB occurred also in the upper parts of the epididymis of the bulls, causing tail and acrosome defects to the spermatozoa, in the rams such an effect seems to occur all along the epididymal duct. These differences between bulls and rams in the sites of the genital tract where the drug takes effect, and in the mechanism of this effect, reveal probable differences in the physiology of the reproductive tract between these species.