pregnancy test kit

[pdfangus]

has anyone used this pregnancy test kit?

solicit opinion and comment.

http://www.twilcanada.com/

 

[whitecow]

It measures progesterone in the milk. It can give false positives. Works best for dairy cows were it is easy to get samples to test several days in a row. I think the Biopryn blood test is a better alternative for early pregnancy detection. However, I use ultrasound/palpation and heat detection.

 

[TexasBred]

It measures progesterone in the milk. It can give false positives. Works best for dairy cows were it is easy to get samples to test several days in a row. I think the Biopryn blood test is a better alternative for early pregnancy detection. However, I use ultrasound/palpation and heat detection.

Will it also give a false "negative"?

 

[pdfangus]

TB,

On their web site they cite accuracies both ways above 95 percent but neither is claimed to be 100%

 

[TexasBred]

TB,

On their web site they cite accuracies both ways above 95 percent but neither is claimed to be 100%

Just curious. Some tests for other things (testing for antibiotics in milk etc) will tell you to disregard a false positive if others all show negative.

 

[kjonesel]

I think I will order 5 of them and give them a try. I have it where I can get my cows up and it would be nice to use as a management tool especially with the price of hay and grain.

 

[Lucky_P]

My understanding, from other discussions I've seen on it, is that it's just a progesterone test - one test really only tells you if the cow has a functional CL - not necessarily if she's pregnant.
You'd have to do 5 tests, on 5 consecutive days to determine that the cow is bred - one negative in that group of 5 means: OPEN. If it's $5 a pop, and you've gotta do 5 of 'em to be sure...it ain't all that cheap.

From one of the company's recent email blasts:
# Recommend 5 test for animal where we do not have enough knowledge of their insemination date after 23rd day post insemination, the test should continue for 5 consecutive days and one negative result confirm that the animal is OPEN (negative pregnancy).


BioPryn requires a blood test, but measures a placenta-derived compound, so a positive is definitive. It's the way I'd go if I were doing a non-palpation pregnancy test.

 

[hillsdown]

The main advantage of using milk or plasma progesterone concentrations to diagnose pregnancy is that this method allows detection of nonpregnant cows soon after insemination. In particular, cows can be diagnosed not pregnant as early as 21 days after insemination.

There are several disadvantages of using milk or plasma progesterone to diagnose pregnancy. Milk and plasma progesterone samples need to be collected at least two times after insemination. Usually, samples are collected at 21 and 24 days after insemination. If either one of those samples is considered to have low progesterone concentrations, cows are diagnosed as not pregnant. Thus, the use of progesterone tests is a good diagnosis tool to detect nonpregnant cows. If both samples have high progesterone concentrations, however, there is still a certain probability that the cow is not actually pregnant. The reliability of progesterone tests to detect pregnant cows is estimated to be only around 80 %. That means that 20 % of cows diagnosed pregnant by progesterone are, in reality, not pregnant. Here are some reasons why:

Cows do not show estrus exactly every 21 days. A nonpregnant cow can have showed estrus less than 21 days after insemination. This cow may ovulate and form a corpus luteum, which will increase progesterone concentrations. Thus, this nonpregnant cow may be erroneously diagnosed as pregnant.

Cows with reproductive problems such as ovarian cysts or uterine infections also may have two consecutive high progesterone concentrations and be diagnosed as pregnant.

Cows may be pregnant at 21 days after insemination but lose that pregnancy in the next 30 to 40 days. Pregnancy losses in that period may reach up to 30 % according to recent estimates.

Sometimes cows are inseminated when not really in estrus. At 21 days after insemination, these cows will often be in the luteal phase and have high progesterone concentrations, even if not pregnant.

http://www.animal.ufl.edu/hansen/ans331 ... gnosis.htm

 

[pdfangus]

All of this ecourages me to do what I have done for years.

AI

Wait two weeks

Turn in the clean up bull and try to watch 2X daily for two weeks.