Analysis of Factors Limiting On-Farm Clinical Use of Rapid Progesterone testing

Abstract

To evaluate four commercial enzyme immunoassay progesterone test kits, milk samples (25 ml each of fore milk, bulk milk, and after milk) were collected at various intervals after milking from animals with various reproductive statuses. Effects of protein  and fat contents, high somatic cell counts and quarters were evaluated by comparison between diseased and  clinically normal quarters (n=33  pairs)  and between normal quarter (n=8). Accuracy of enzyme immunoassay was determined by calculating the percentages of similarity with radioimmunoassay progesterone values. Results obtained showed that neither composition type nor milk sampling had effect on progesterone concentration. Each of kits obtained   accuracy acceptable for clinical use. Data suggest that on farm progsterone tests are potentially useful management aids to confirm oestrus and cyclicity