Validity of some immunological and thrombocytopenia tests for diagnosing early pregnancy in buffaloes

ABSTRACT

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the validity and accurancy of some laboratory tests in diagnosing early pregnancy in buffaloes as a tool to reduce the breeding and calving intervals. Therefore, plasma progesterone concentration and thrombocyte counts were determined before and after natural service or insemination. Precipitation test, using foetal antibodies and cotyledons antibodies was performed in the plasma of the examined animals [3-5 weeks post-service or insemination]. Results of the present investigation revealed that no early pregnancy associated thrombocytopenia was detected in buffaloes which make this test invalid for detection of early pregnancy. Application of precipitation test using foetal antibodies, although still in a stage of developing, its accuracy was 78.43% in pregnant and 84.75% in non pregnant buffaloes. In addition, the accuracy of precipitation test using cotyledons antibodies was 74% in pregnant and 79.45% in non pregnant buffaloes. Thuse, it can be concluded that the precipitation test using foetal or cotyedons antibodies is simple, paratical, useful and can be used under field conditions