Pregnancy diagnosis and fetal quantification in damascus goat using transabdominal real-time ultrasonography

Abstract EN

The assessment of an early and reliable pregnancy diagnosis in goats is very important for limiting the number of non productive days in goat herds.

The present study was conducted to detect pregnancy and to estimate fetal quantification in a flock of Damascus goats.

A total of thirty multiparous Damascus goats were used in the present study.

They were divided into three groups according to their estimated date of gestation.

Group 1 (n =9) was between 21-35 days of gestation, group 2 (n =10) was between 36-55 days of gestation and the third group (n=41) was between 56-75 days of gestation.

Transabdominal ultrasound scanning was done while the animal was on a dorsal recumbancy and well restrained with a pillow put underneath.

Real-time ultrasound scanner equipped with switchable frequency (5-7.5 MHz) micro convex probe was used in the study.

The overall accuracy for pregnancy diagnosis was 100%.

The accuracy for fetal quantification for all predictions was found to be 90.9 %.

The overall accuracy for determining single fetuses, twins and triplets was 100, 85.7 and 50 % respectively.

It is concluded that ultrasound is a safe, rapid and reliable method in detecting pregnancy and estimating fetal quantification in Damascus goats.