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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Livestock Bio-Systems » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #346347
Research Project: Improving Lifetime Productivity in Swine

Location: Livestock Bio-Systems

Title: The heritability of vessel size of the pampiniform plexus as a means to assess the genetic component of varicocele

Author
item GRUHOT, TASHA - University Of Nebraska
item Rempel, Lea
item SPANGLER, MATT - University Of Nebraska
item MOTE, BENNY - University Of Nebraska

Submitted to: World Congress of Genetics Applied in Livestock Production
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/16/2017
Publication Date: 2/11/2018
Citation: Gruhot, T., Rempel, L.A., Spangler, M., Mote, B. 2018. The heritability of vessel size of the pampiniform plexus as a means to assess the genetic component of varicocele. In proceedings: World Congress of Genetics Applied in Livestock Production, 11-17 Feb 2018, Auckland, New Zealand. Electronic Poster Session-Biology-Reproduction 2, 698. Available: https://www.wcgalp.org/proceedings/2018.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Ultrasonography of each testicle was used to capture a coronal-saggital image of the veins of the pampiniform plexus (PP) and the testicular artery of 239 boars at approximately 6 months of age. Three to 10 vessels of the PP were used to derive the average area of right PP vessels (AAR) and the average area of the left PP vessels (AAL) and the standard deviation for each testicle for each boar. Within boar ratios, as well as boar to population ratios of vessel size were then calculated to identify boars with suspect varicocele. Suspect varicocele was defined as vessel area 1.5 times larger than the other testicle within a boar or compared to the average vessel size for that testicle in the population. Utilizing the within boar ratio, 34% of boars presented with suspect varicocele, with 85% of the varicocele occurring in the left testicle PP. Heritability estimates from a sire model were 0.39 and 0.34 for AAR and AAL, respectively.