Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate oestrus responses using double treatments of PGF2α (Lutalyse® and Synchromate®) in Nigerian jennies. Eight (8) cycling jennies aged 3.8 ± 2.0 years were used for this study. The jennies were randomly assigned to 2 groups of 4 jennies each; Group 1 (n=4): jennies treated with a double injection of 10mg of Lutalyse®; Group 2 (n=4): jennies treated with double injection of 375µg of Synchromate®. The synchronized jennies were observed for behavioural oestrus three times daily (8-10 am, 12-2 pm and 4-8 pm) for two oestrous cycles. The fertility parameters determined in this study were: Oestrus response rate (ORR), Time to onset of oestrus (TOO), Duration of oestrus (DOO) and Intensity of synchronization (IS) within 48 hours. The obtained variables from the study namely ORR and IS were expressed in percentages while TOO and DOO were expressed as mean ± SEM. Comparisons between the groups were carried out using one-way ANOVA and T- test. The differences were considered significant when P < 0.05, highly significant when P 0.05. SAS system for windows 9.0 was used for the analysis. Groups 1 and 2, had time to onset of oestrus of 3.98 ± 0.95 and 1.78 ± 0.29 hours (P>0.05), duration of oestrus of 78.0 ± 22.7 and 120 ± 16.97 hours (P

Key words: Nigerian jennies, Synchronization, Oestrus responses, Double treatment Lutalyse, Double treatment Synchromate