Comparison of bovine pregnancy associated glycoproteins (bpag- serum and milk), bovine pregnancy specific protein b (bpsp-b) tests with each other and with transrectal ultrasonographic findings for early pregnancy diagnosis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of bovine pregnancy-associated glycoproteins (bPAG) and bovine pregnancy-specific protein B (bPSP-B) tests with transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) for early pregnancy diagnosis in dairy cows. The study was carried out on 58 Holstein cows. Blood and milk samples were collected on days 20, 25, 28, 30, 32 and 40 following artificial insemination (AI). TRUS was performed on all cows on days 30 and 40 following AI. The positive predictive values for bPAG-serum and bPAG-milk tests were 100% on days 28 and 30. For bPSP-B tests, positive predictive values were 93.7% and 100% on days 28 and 30, respectively. The Kappa test revealed a high agreement between TRUS and the three tests on days 28 and 30 with the values of 0.954 and 0.946 (P<0.001), respectively. Specificity was found to be 100% for bPAG-serum and bPAG-milk, and 96.7% for bPSP-B on day 28. Sensitivity values were calculated as 94.1% and 93.8% for bPAG-serum and bPSP-B, respectively. The area under ROC curve was between 0.967 and 0.991 for on day 28 following AI. In conclusion, all three tests were found to be reliable methods for pregnancy diagnosis in cows on days 28 and 30 following AI. However, test results may give false positive values in case of embryonic deaths.

Keywords

• pregnancy diagnosis
• bovine
• pregnancy-associated glycoprotein
• pregnancy-specific protein-b
• elisa