[Determination of progesterone levels in the milk of mares: a useful aid in the diagnosis of early pregnancy].

This research article evaluates the effectiveness of determining early stage pregnancy in mares by establishing the concentration of progesterone hormone levels found in their milk. Despite a 4.3% discrepancy in the testing results, the method was found to be a beneficial tool.

Introduction and Methodology

• The research was based on determining the concentration of a hormone called progesterone, found in the milk of mares.
• The hormone is closely associated with pregnancy, so its concentration was used to establish early-stage pregnancy in mares, specifically sixteen days or more into the gestation period.
• A total of 327 mares were utilized in this study to test for the specific concentration of progesterone in their milk.
• The threshold used for the concentration of progesterone in the EIA-system (Enzyme Immunoassay) was set at 5 ng/ml.

Findings and Results

• Out of the 327 mares, the test results were not in agreement with the confirmed reality for 14 mares, representing a discrepancy of 4.3%.
• The test inaccurately reported five mares (15%) as not pregnant, even though they were – these were cases of false non-pregnancy.
• Conversely, nine mares (2.8%) were incorrectly identified as pregnant when they were not, indicating false positive results.

Conclusions and Implications

• Despite the small percentage of discrepancy, the tests indicated a high level of accuracy overall, making this progesterone determination method a very promising aid in the diagnosis of early-stage pregnancy in mares.
• The results of this study could advance breeding processes and management of horse populations, by ensuring timely and efficient pregnancy detection.