SUMMARY
The purpose of this study was to 1, determine the earliest time following breeding that pregnancy could be detected using transabdominal B-mode real-time ultrasonography 2, define sonographically some developmental landmarks of pregnancy and 3, determine the accuracy of ultrasound for pregnancy diagnosis, in the West African Dwarf goat. Seventeen does of varying parities (allotted to 2 groups; group 1 = 12 and group 2 = 5) and a buck of proven fertility were used for this study. The group 1 does were hand-mated following synchronized estrus. Transabdominal scanning using SA 600V® (Medison, Co., Ltd, Seoul, Korea) ultrasound machine equipped with a transducer of multiple frequency (5.0 to 8.0 MHz) was carried out every day starting Day 15 (Day of estrus/ breeding = day 0 of gestation) to Day 40 and, thereafter, every other day to Day 60 of gestation. Acoustic coupling gel, Wavelength®, (National Therapy Products Inc, Canada) was liberally applied on the animal skin area to be scanned. Sonograms were printed using UM 697D thermal printer (Sony Co., Ltd, Japan) on Sony ultrasound paper, UPP110S. Using the group 1 does the earliest sonographic evidence of pregnancy was the imaging of embryonic vesicle (EV) on Day 18 ± 0.29, embryo proper on Day 20.2 ± 0.24, embryo with a beating heart on Day 23.8 ± 0.91, embryo cephalization and development of limb buds on Day 31.4 ± 0.88, and the appearance of placentomes on Day 34.4 ± 0.42 of gestation. The imaging of an embryo with a beating heart was used as confirmation of embryo viability. Ten out of the 12 (83.33%) group 1 does were diagnosed pregnant by sonographic cyesiognosis while 2 (16.67%) does were diagnosed non pregnant. The 5 group 2 does were also diagnosed pregnant. The 10 pregnant group 1 does subsequently kidded following an average gestation length of 144.4 ± 0.29 days. All kids were born alive and healthy with no apparent morphological abnormalities.
Key words: KEY WORDS: Pregnancy detection, accuracy, ultrasound, WAD goat.
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