Читать книгу Bovine Reproduction - Группа авторов - Страница 291

The scrotum of the bull is a dependent appendage of the ventral abdominal skin that supports and protects the testicles and helps regulate testicular temperature. The testis must be maintained at a temperature 4–6 °C cooler than body temperature for normal spermatogenesis to occur. Testicular thermoregulation is a complex process that involves a combination of evaporative cooling from scrotal sweat glands, relaxation and contracture of the tunica dartos muscle in response to scrotal temperature, and counter‐current heat exchange between the pampiniform plexus and the testicular artery [1]. Trauma, inflammation, or swelling of the scrotum or testes can easily impair testicular thermoregulation, and studies utilizing scrotal insulations have shown that morphological abnormal sperm are produced within 6–14 days of the insult [2].