Development of equine chorionic gonadotrophin (eCG) based sandwich ELISA for pregnancy diagnosis and fetus viability in mares

Abstract

An equine chorionic gonadotrophin (eCG) based sandwich ELISA (sELISA) was developed for confirmation of early conception in pregnant mares around 30 days of gestation and fetus viability thereafter. This serum based quantitative assay is quite sensitive, specific, precise and efficient. Serum eCG content higher than 10 IU/ml during early gestation was used for confirmation of conception while eCG content more than 40 IU/ml was taken as cut off for fetus viability between 40 – 60 days of gestation. Assay was performed with more than 4,000 field serum samples and compared with equivalent commercial pregnancy diagnostic kit with its better sensitivity. Assay showed little cross reactivity with serum of non pregnant mares, jennies, and other animal species. Confirmation of fetus viability sELISA helped in re-servicing the mares which are observed to empty after conception failure or fetal loss.