Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF THE HELLENIC VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY, cilt.73, sa.3, ss.4303-4308, 2022 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
The accurrate diagnosis of pregnancy and prediction of lambing rate are important tools that ensure the proper nutrition of pregnant ewes, optimize the birth weight of offspring and decrease the occurrence of pregnancy toxemia in sheep production.The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the rapid visual PAG ELISA test in predicting the lambing rate, when performed in two different stages of pregnancy in Awassi sheep. A total of 210 ewes, belonging to a commercial flock, were assigned to two groups according to their mating date. Group 1 comprised of 120 ewes, which were in the period from 28 to 38 days post-mating, and Group 2 comprised of 90 ewes, which were in the period from 40 to 59 days post-mating. The rapid visual PAG ELISA test was performed on serum samples of the ewes, according to the manufacturer's instructions. The diagnostic test characteristics of the rapid visual PAG ELISA test were assessed for the prediction of lambing rate, using the lambing records as a gold standard.The sensi-tivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of the rapid visual PAG ELISA test were 95.79%, 52.38%, 90.10%, 73.33%, and 87.93%, respectively, in G1 and 92.75%, 70.00%, 91.43%, 73.68%, and 87.64%, respectively, in G2.While the rapid visual PAG ELISA test predicted (falce positive + true positive) that 87.1% of the ewes exposed to rams in G1 would lamb, in reality it achieved (true positive) that 78.5% of them lambed. The rapid visual PAG ELISA test predicted that 77.5% of the ewes exposed to rams in G2 would lamb, in reality it achieved that 71.9% of them lambed. The McNemar analysis showed that there was no statistically significant difference be-tween the rapid visual PAG ELISA test and lambing records in the two groups.The differences between predicted and achieved lambing rate by the rapid visual PAG ELISA indicate embryonic mortality. The results of this study indicated that the lambing rate could be predicted with a high sensitivity from the 28th day of pregnancy, using the rapid visual PAG ELISA test.