Pregnancy diagnosis, fetal quantification and gender estimation by ultra-sonography in ewes

Lilian Mara Kirsch Dias,Camila De Moraes Raymundo,Roberta De Moura Assis,José Camisão De Souza

doi:10.1590/s1413-70542009000300035

Lilian Mara Kirsch Dias, Camila De Moraes Raymundo + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s1413-70542009000300035

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Abstract

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the accuracy of gestation, fetal sexing and quantification diagnoses in ewes. Pregnancy and fetal quantification were diagnosed in 105 ewes at 35 days of pregnancy. For the fetal gender diagnosis sexing diagnose 55 ewes between 49 and 59 days of pregnancy were used. All exams were recorded on DVD for posterior analysis. After birth, lamb sex was recorded to determine fetal sexing precision. Data were analyzed by chisquare (χ2) or Fisher's test, with a significance of 0.05. One hundred percent of pregnancy ultrasound diagnoses were correct. As for the fetal quantification diagnoses, there was an error of 12%. It was possible to diagnose the fetal sex in 87% of the 69 examined fetuses, and 90% of these were estimated correctly. The real-time ultrasound diagnoses were not different from the recorded DVD image diagnoses. Therefore, pregnancy diagnosis accuracy may reach 100%, differing from fetal gender estimation and quantification, which are dependent upon other variables such as fetal gender and examiner experience.

Highlights

Pregnancy diagnosis and fetal quantification through ultra-sonography contribute to rationalize management and bring financial benefits to ovine production
There was 100% accuracy for the ultra-sonography based estimates, so that, no ewe was diagnosed as nonpregnant
This occurred because the pregnancy diagnose in ewes at 35 days of gestation is facilitated by the large amount of fluid within the uterus, which forms a well characterized non-echogenic image, besides the visualization of the fetus itself and of the heart beats (Santos, 2004)

Summary

Introduction

Pregnancy diagnosis and fetal quantification through ultra-sonography contribute to rationalize management and bring financial benefits to ovine production. This method allows non-pregnant ewes or bearing reproductive problems to be culled from the herd, decreasing feed costs. The accuracy of fetal gender determination in sheep and goats may vary from 78 to 100% (Coughbrough & Castell, 1998; Bürstel et al, 2002; Santos et al, 2005b; Santos et al, 2006) and may be influenced by the presence of multiple fetuses (Bürstel, 2002; Oliveira et al, 2005; Santos et al, 2005 a, b).

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