Acupuntura e moxabustão no melhoramento da qualidade seminal em cão: relato de caso

Abstract

Reproduction techniques applied to dogs have become a rapidly growing area in Veterinary Medicine. As a result, there is a growing need for new ways to help improve canine semen quality. Acupuncture is a method derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which aims to balance Yin and Yang by puncturing acupoints in specific meridians. Moxibustion increases heat in the acupoint by burning dried leaves and mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), providing energetic nourishment to the body. In the case report of a 4-year-old intact German Spitz dog, the efficacy of acupuncture combined with moxibustion was verified based on the analysis of the animal's physical fitness and verification of sperm analysis parameters, such as volume, color, appearance, pH, motility, vigor, concentration, morphology and total number of spermatozoa obtained prior to the sessions, after 6 sessions, and after the twelve sessions of acupuncture combined with moxibustion. An increase in motility, vigor, concentration and number of spermatozoa was observed. In addition, there was a decrease in sperm abnormalities, which refer to major and minor sperm defects. Performing acupuncture combined with moxibustion in the dog improved the parameters evaluated in the spermogram based on the increase in motility, vigor, total number of spermatozoa and concentration, in addition to the decrease in sperm pathologies.