Evaluation of ëCONFIRMí as a method to verify pregnancy in dairy
cows
K.M. Henderson, M. Camberis, K.L. Macmillan
AgResearch, Wallaceville Animal Research Centre, P O Box 40063,
Upper Hutt, New Zealand
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production. 1995,
55: 91-93
CONFIRM is a recently developed test kit for verifying pregnancy in
dairy cows on the basis of the concentration of oestrone sulphate (OS)
measured in a milk sample taken at least 120 days after mating/insemination.
In this study, the performance of CONFIRM was evaluated using milk
samples from non-pregnant cows returning a ëconfirmedí pregnant diagnosis
increased as pregnancy progressed. While only 42% of cows 22-119 days
pregnant returned a ëconfirmedí pregnant diagnosis, this value increased to
96% for cows > 120 days pregnant. The diagnoses returned by CONFIRM
were highly reproducible for non-pregnant cows, and cows 120 or more days
pregnant. Analysis by CONFIRM of a milk sample taken at least 120 days
after mating/insemination provides an accurate, non-invasive means of
verifying pregnancy in dairy cows.
Keywords: NZSAPAB;
CONFIRM; dairy cows; milk; pregnancy testing; oestrone sulphate;
enzymeimmunoassay
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Last Updated 25-01-1997
