Influence of Unilateral Cryptorchidism on Growth Performance and Fertility Indices of West African Dwarf Bucks

Background and Objective: The unorthodox use of unilateral cryptorchid buck affects the production of WAD goats. This study was aimed at investigating the influence of unilateral cryptorchidism on the body weight, gonadal biometry and sperm reserves of WAD bucks. Materials and Methods: Sixteen matured WAD bucks were purchased and grouped into: Normal WAD bucks and unilateral cryptorchid WAD bucks. Parameters investigated were body weight (BW), scrotal circumference (SC), testicular weight (TW), testicular length (TL), testicular volume (TV), testicular density (TD), length of caput (CaEL), corpus (CoEL), cauda (CdEL), and whole length of epididymis (WEL), weight of caput (CaEW), corpus (CoEW), cauda (CdEW), and whole epididymis (WEW) as well as sperm concentrations of the testis (TSC), caput (CaESC, corpus (CoESC), cauda (CdESC), whole epididymis (ESC) and testis-epididymis (TESC). Data collected were analyzed using a T-test value. Results: The BW, TW, TL, TV, TD and WEL were not affected (p>0.05) by unilateral cryptorchidism. The results revealed that unilateral cryptorchidism increase (p<0.05) SC, WEW, CaEW, CoEW, and CdEW of bucks but does not affected (p>0.05) WEL, CaEL, CoEL, CdEL of bucks. Unilateral cryptorchidism deceases (p<0.05) sperm reserves (TSC, ESC, CaESC, CoESC, CdESC, and TESC) of bucks. Conclusion: Unilateral cryptorchidism does not influence the growth performance and gonad development of WAD bucks but reduces their sperm reserves. These findings show that normal bucks had better fertility indices and therefore should be used for breeding.