Abstract
The objective of the present study was to determine the pregnancy status of Dohne Merino ewes at slaughter. This was done by collecting blood samples from the ewes (n = 60) during exsanguination to assay for pregnancy biomarkers using radio-immunological and TaqMan reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction techniques. The expressions of ovine pregnancy-associated glycoprotein within a range of 1.068(-09) to 8.977(-07) indicated 43.33 % ewes with pregnancy (ΔmRNA) signals at the point of slaughter. The assay validation showed that half of these ewes were truly pregnant, and most of the ewes that exhibited 'true positives' were within 56-60 kg live weight and were about 30 months old. The biomarkers used in this study, therefore, showed that approximately 22 % Dohne Merino ewes were truly pregnant at the point of slaughter.
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