PREGNANCY DETECTION IN THE PIG BY DOPPLER -ULTRASOUND

By examining a group of 20 sows, nine of which were between 28 and 40 days pregnant, five commercially available doppler-ultrasound pregnanc y-detection devices were tested. Correct diagnoses varied between 83 a nd 97% for pregnant sows, and 88 and 98% for non-pregnant sows. Based on daily testing of 23 sows, starting 1 week after mating, reliable pr egnancy detection was found to be possible from day 14 onwards. A comp arison of the different devices produced no indication of reliability differences but did make apparent the great differences in convenience of operation.