ACCURACY OF PREGNANCY DETECTION BY SERUM-PROTEIN (PSPB) IN ELK

Blood sera from 225 Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) were t ested for presence of pregnancy-specific protein-B (PSPB) and compared to pregnancy results from uterus examinations. Lowering the criterion used to indicate pregnancy from 95% to 93% binding of elk antiserum t o bovine PSPB improved overall pregnancy detection accuracy from 94% t o 96% and reduced the rate of false positive tests from 15% to 3%, No relationship was observed (P = 0.62) between percent binding and day o f gestation.