Evaluation of a cattle rapid test for early pregnancy diagnosis in sheep

• Published in: Tropical animal health and production Vol. 52; no. 3; pp. 1345 - 1349
• Main Authors: de Miranda e Silva Chaves, Camila, da Costa, Ricardo Lopes Dias, Duarte, Keila Maria Roncato, Beltrame, Renato Travassos, Quirino, Celia Raquel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.05.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animals; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cattle; Diagnosis; Diagnostic Tests, Routine - methods; Diagnostic Tests, Routine - veterinary; Evaluation; Female; Life Sciences; Livestock; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Tests - methods; Pregnancy Tests - veterinary; Pregnancy, Animal - physiology; Regular Articles; Sensitivity and Specificity; Sheep; Ultrasound; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science; Zoology; Visual test; Pregnancy-associated glycoprotein; Gestation diagnosis; Elisa
• ISSN: 0049-4747; 1573-7438
• DOI: 10.1007/s11250-019-02130-7

The early pregnancy diagnosis allows optimizing production and timely management correction, with a greater reproductive output of livestock. The Idexx Rapid Visual Pregnancy Test® consists of an ELISA for visual reading which does not require the use of readers in the laboratory, with satisfactory pregnancy diagnoses at 28 days of pregnancy in cattle. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate this rapid test and to verify the most appropriate day for the diagnosis of pregnancy in the ovine species. For this purpose, 98 serum samples from pregnant sheep and 36 from non-pregnant were used, with duplicate samples, and diagnosis was confirmed by ultrasound examination, used as the gold standard. The numbers of positive samples obtained at 26, 28, and 30 days of pregnancy were 26, 27, and 45, respectively. The Rapid Visual Pregnancy Test correctly identified 100% of the samples as positive at pregnancy of days 26, 28, and 30. The sensitivity and specificity of the test were also 100%. The Idexx Rapid Visual Pregnancy Test, initially indicated for cattle, is effective for the detection of pregnancy in the ovine species, enabling diagnosis of pregnant sheep from the 26th day of pregnancy.