Pig Pregnancy Diagnosis 

The accurate and early diagnosis of non-pregnancy in sows in both indoor and outdoor herds is essential in managing an efficient breeding unit.

This information can also be used to establish fertility problems at both individual and animal and herd level. The diagnosed pregnant sows can be further scanned to establish approximate foetal numbers, grouping the diagnosis to small, medium or large litters. This provides further data for analysis of fertility or to help provide a maximum farrowing rate by selection of the best sows.

Pregnancy or non-pregnancy in sows can be diagnosed safely and accurately from twenty one days after conception. Trials show that over 99% accuracy of diagnosis can be achieved, enabling fertility problems to be identified rapidly. The diagnosis however, is made easier from twenty four to thirty two days due to the rapid foetal development during this stage of pregnancy. Prior to twenty one days the foetus consists of small sacks of fluid within the uterus, these can be determined using ultrasound imaging but any diagnosis will be less reliable.

The transducer is placed externally on the under belly of the sow to view the contents of the uterus. The uterus must be scanned on both the right and left to determine any non-pregnancy diagnosis. It is common for foetal fluid chambers to be hidden at the extremities of the large uterus. The BCF transducer has a 170 degree viewing angle and thus searching the entire uterus is made easier, as it is possible to display both sides of the uterus from the same point of contact.

Ultrasound is also used for backfat lean and lactate measurement and can be linked to external software packages to enable full calculations to be made.