Pregnant women high on beef consumption more likely to have sons with reduced sperm concentration
A recent research has noted that women who eat large quantities of beef during the stage of pregnancy are at an increased risk of having sons with poor sperm quality.
This reduced fertility passed on to the sons may be due to growth promoters used in cattle such as xenobiotics.
From News-Medical.Net:
In the Associate Editor’s Commentary to the study, Frederick vom Saal, professor of biology at the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA, warned that if foreign chemicals (xenobiotics) such as anabolic steroids were involved in reducing sperm quality, it could be just “the tip of the iceberg” and that the xenobiotics might be involved in other reproductive problems as well.
“Furthermore, women would also be expected to be affected by developmental exposure to xenobiotic hormones; studies relating maternal beef consumption to daughters, incidence of polycystic ovarian syndrome, age at puberty and postnatal growth rate would be predicted to show a significant relationship,” he said.
Growth promoters for cattle, such as the synthetic hormone diethylstilbestrol (DES), have been used in the USA since 1954. Although DES was banned for use in cattle in 1979, other hormones such as oestradiol, testosterone, progesterone, zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengestrol continue to be used. Residues of these chemicals remain in the meat after slaughter and so, in the USA, the FDA has regulated their use to avoid unintended adverse effects in humans eating the meat and defined an “acceptable daily intake”. The International Joint Food and Agricultural Organization’s World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) has also published ADIs. In Europe, the use of these hormones has been banned since 1988.
Professor Shanna Swan, the lead author of the study that is published online in Human Reproduction journal, remarked that this finding suggests that reduced sperm concentration and possible sub-fertility can be associated with maternal beef consumption because of the presence of anabolic steroids and other xenobiotics in beef.
