IDEXX Newsletter

For farmers pregnancy diagnosis by a vet is all about the value-adds; the ability to date the pregnancy, identify any potential pregnancy issues and to be on-farm to provide a herd health check at the same time.

Before your on-farm pregnancy check IDEXX can help add value to infectious disease testing by adding a complimentary IDEXX Alertys^TM Pregnancy Associated Glycoproteins (PAGs) test to every serum BVD Ag and Johne’s test.

Add value early

The Alertys^TM PAG test can detect pregnancy from just 28 days. As you conduct BVD testing in the lead up to Christmas you can add value by giving an early indication on cow’s pregnancy status using the complimentary PAGs test results. This early indication can assist the farmer in making strategic herd decisions early, such as targeted fertility examinations to assist re-breeding efforts.

The helping hand

The high rate of early embryonic loss means that any cow identified as pregnant by the PAGs test should still be included during your (P2) pregnancy testing of the herd. The PAGs test is not a replacement for veterinary pregnancy diagnosis. These additional checks from the complimentary PAGs test adds value to the service you provide to the farmer, assisting you in working together to make evidence based, strategic, herd health decisions.

Vet pregnancy diagnosis is the best option for a farmer. There are things a vet can do on farm that a laboratory test can’t. We don’t want to change this, but we do want to change the way people think about pregnancy diagnosis. A vet can’t check pregnancies all the time it’s just not practical. It’s labor intensive, time consuming, and invasive. That’s where the PAGs test comes in, it allows us to assist you and the farmer by providing extra confirmatory checks to identify empty and lost pregnancies. We want more pregnancy checks to take place outside of your diagnosis so we can assist farmers in making earlier strategic management decisions. 

The Alertys^TM Pregnancy Associated Glycoproteins test

• ELISA test run in the laboratory
• Detects Pregnancy Associated Glycoproteins only produced by the placenta when the cow is in calf.
• Validated to identify pregnancy from 28 days after mating (and 60 days after calving).
• Accurate - sensitivity of 99% and specificity of 94%.

  Getting more from every sample is easy:

• After bleeding the herd simply send your samples and submission form to IDEXX
• All serum BVD Ag and Johne’s tests will automatically receive complimentary PAGs test results

¹ McDougall S, Rhodes FM, Verkerk G, 2005, Pregnancy loss in dairy cattle in the Waikato region of New Zealand, NZ Vet Journal Oct;53(5):p279-87.

IDEXX Marketing Team

News items and blog articles posted by the IDEXX Marketing Team