Iraqi Journal of Veterinary Sciences

Abstract

The study was designed to evaluate the efficiency of transabdominal ultrasonography for pregnancy diagnosis and determination of fetal viability in mares, as an alternative approach to the transrectal ultrasonography, to reduce the probability of misdiagnosis and to avoid the harmful effect of transrectal invasive. Forty-five mares were examined by transrectal and transabdominal ultrasonography. Results showed that 26 mares were pregnant and 19 mares were non-pregnant. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value of both approaches were 100%. Transabdominal ultrasonography required less time in comparison to transrectal ultrasonography to get the final decision for non-pregnant mares (5.26±0.27 vs. 8.11±0.31 min), mares at 2nd trimester (4.36±0.49 vs. 5.57±0.29 min) and 3rd trimester (4.12±0.51 vs. 5.86±0.26 min), respectively. In both methods, no significant correlation was recorded between the scanning time and the gestational age. The overall positive predictive values for the determination of fetal viability were 26.9% for transrectal and 80.8% for transabdominal ultrasonography. A significant variance (P<0.01) was reported between the positive predictive values that obtained by transrectal and transabdominal ultrasonography. It can be concluded that the transabdominal is an effective, practical and often essential approach of ultrasonography for pregnancy diagnosis and determination of fetal viability in mares, especially at the second and third trimesters of gestation. We recommended the transabdominal ultrasonography as a first examination for mares that presented for pregnancy diagnosis, if this approach does not give an accurate diagnosis, the mares can be scan transrectaly. So, we can minimize the stress and hazard of the transrectal examination.