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Conference abstract2021Peer reviewed

Antimicrobial effect of commercial pomegranate powder on bull semen microbiota

Cojkic, Aleksandar; Hansson, Ingrid; Morrell, Jane

Abstract

Antimicrobial agents are added to semen extenders to prevent growth of bacteria in semen. The 
aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial potential of fresh pomegranate juice (PJ) and 
reconstituted commercial pomegranate powder (PP), on the microbiota collected from bull 
semen. Bacterial broth (BB) was made from 25 bacterial strains isolated from semen of one bull. 
The treatments were created using three ratios of BB and PJ (1:0.5; 1:1; 1:2), in addition to BB 
and PP (1:1); three concentrations of PP were assessed (5%, 10%, 20%). The PP and PJ were 
filtered to exclude bacterial contamination. Bacterial growth was determined after 0 and 24 hours 
of exposure at room temperature. Antimicrobial efficiency was determined from bacterial counts 
(logarithmic colony-forming units; CFU per mL) before and after incubation for 72 hours at 
30°C. The experiment was repeated three times. Multiple T test and ANOVA Dunnett`s multiple 
comparison test (GraphPadPrisma 7.00) were performed to analyse the date. Confidence interval 
P<0.05 was defined as statistically significant. An antimicrobial effect was seen for all tested 
groups at 0 h exposure compared with controls except for BB: PJ (1:0.5). A reduction in bacterial 
numbers was found for BB:PJ (1:2), BB:PP 10% and BB:PP 20% compared with control after 24 
hours of exposure. No antimicrobial effect was seen for PJ 1:0.5, PJ 1:1 and PP 5%. Based on 
these results, PP could be used to reduce bacterial numbers in bull semen provided that it does 
not have a deleterious effect on sperm quality.

Keywords

Punica granatum; bull semen microbiota; antimicrobial effect

Published in

Title: Book of abstracts : XII international scientific agriculture symposium “AGROSYM 2021”
Publisher: AgroSym

Conference

XII International scientific agriculture symposium “AGROSYM 2021”, 211007-211010, Jahorina, Bosnia and Hercegovina

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science

Publication identifier

  • ISBN: 978-99976-787-8-2

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/114544