Evaluation of bacterial load in fresh ejaculates of bovine and buffalo bull semen in Himachal Pradesh

Fresh semen (75) ejaculates from breeding bulls (16 cow bulls and 6 buffalo bulls) were studied for bacterial load and the type of bacteria present. T he bovine bulls (33.3%) and buffalo bulls (24.1%) carried the bacterial loa d from 10 000 to 50 000/ml and 100 to 5 000/ml respectively. On an average bacterial count per mi of neat semen ranged from 5 000 to 56 000 in 46 ejac ulates of bovine bulls and 4 100 to 18 000 in 29 ejaculates of buffalo bull s. The different microorganisms as staphylococci ( 19), micrococci (1), cor ynebacteria (2), members of Enterobacteriaceae (1 2) and anthracoids (49) w ere isolated from semen.