Pregnancy tests for mares - a challenge

Authors: MacKay RCJ
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 27, Issue 3, pp 32, Mar 1979
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Horse, Livestock
Subject Terms: Diagnostic procedures, Endocrine/autocrine/paracrine, Pregnancy, Reproduction, Reproduction - female, Reproduction - hormones
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: In an article published in the (November, 1978) Newsletter of the Equine Branch of the NZVA, Margaret Evans and C. H. G. Irvine made the following statement, “ …blood pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (PMSG) is a more reliable test for viable pregnancy than manual palpation, particularly at Day 40 which is close to the time when most pregnancy certificates are written”. The article announced the authors` development of a new radio-immunoassay for serum PMSG, based largely on check tests they ran on 220 mares previously examined by a group of 6 local practitioners in the normal course of their work. Of the 73 mares for which foaling, or non-foaling, records were available, Evans and Irvine claimed that their method was about 5% more accurate than manual palpation. It might well be, but certainly not on the evidence presented…

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