EARLY-PREGNANCY DIAGNOSIS IN THE SOW BY SALIVA PROGESTERONE MEASUREMENT USING A BOVINE-MILK PROGESTERONE QUALITATIVE TEST EIA KIT

We attempted to measure the qualitative saliva progesterone concentrat ion in the sow using a commercial bovine milk progesterone qualitative test EIA kit (qualitative kit), which can measure the progesterone co ncentration in approximately 10 min, and investigated the possibility of applying this method of progesterone concentration measurement to e arly pregnancy diagnosis in the sow. The accuracy of pregnancy diagnos is at 17-24 days after last mating for 138 sows was 91.3% (105/115) fo r positive cases and 100% (6/6) for negative cases. The overall pregna ncy diagnosis accuracy, including 17 indeterminable cases, was 80.4% ( 111/138). A comparison of the diagnoses based on progesterone concentr ations measured by the qualitative kit and the saliva progesterone con centrations of identical samples measured by the quantitative kit show ed close agreement: 6 cases diagnosed as negative pregnancy by the qua litative kit all had a progesterone concentration of less than 5 ng/ml , while 111 out of 115 cases diagnosed as positive pregnancy by the qu alitative kit all showed a progesterone concentration over 5 ng/ml. Th us, the results of this study show that qualitative measurement of the saliva progesterone concentration in the sow using a bovine milk prog esterone qualitative test EIA kit is a practical method for early preg nancy diagnosis.