Diagnostic reliability of enzymatic-immunoassayed serum pregnancy-associated glycoproteins in detecting early pregnancy compared to other screening measures in Aardi goats (Capra hircus) in Saudi arabia

Despite proven ability of pregnancy-associated glycoproteins (PAGs) for early detection of pregnancy in several livestock, studies on its diagnostic reliability in Aardi goats are lacking. Thirty-two healthy mature Aardi does, managed under an intensive condition, were screened for pregnancy at 1, 7, 15, 23, 35 and 60 days post natural mating (NM) to evaluate the ability of utilizing caprine pregnancy-associated glycoproteins (caPAGs) compared to other methods frequently applied-but have several setbacks-in screening goats for early pregnancy diagnosis. According to the enzymatic-immunoassay data, our results indicated that pregnant Aardi does had higher (P < 0.0001) serum caPAGs concentration than their non-pregnant counterparts after 23, 35 and 60 days post NM. Therefore, determination of serum caPAGs may have a considerable diagnostic merit in Aardi goats. To confirm, the ability of caPAGs in detecting early pregnancy was then compared with enzymatic-immunoassayed serum progesterone (P4) assay as well as trans-rectal and abdominal ultrasonography (US) technique. The present data revealed that there were no differences (P > 0.05) between the sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and accuracy of serum caPAGs and other methods as early as day 23 post NM. Moreover, both serum caPAGs and US technique were proven to give higher (P< 0.0001) sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and accuracy than serum P4 at 35 days post NM. Thereby, this implies that serum caPAGs can be used alone or in combination with other methods for early pregnancy diagnosis in Aardi goats. In conclusion, the obtained results herein clearly demonstrated that enzymatic-immunoassayed serum caPAGs, as a direct, simple, accurate, inexpensive, practical and fast screening measure, was greatly feasible for distinguishing pregnant from non-pregnant as early as day 23 post NM, which is crucial to treat fertility problems early and efficiently.