Milk pregnancy testing is growing in popularity among Irish dairy farmers as a way of determining whether cows are in-calf or not.
It works by detecting protein changes in the milk that are associated with pregnancy.
Developed by IDEXX, a world leader in veterinary diagnostics, milk pregnancy tests have been performed more than 38 million times since 2010.
In Ireland, at present, there are two companies that provide milk pregnancy testing, through either milk recording or postal kits.
They are Munster Bovine, which tests through milk recording and Progressive Genetics, which offers both services.
The use of the postal kits also means that suckler farmers can use the service to detect pregnancies with their herds by way of a one-time manual milking.
Furthermore, it means that farmers that are not currently milk recording can complete milk pregnancy sampling of their herd or selected cows within their herd.
Milk pregnancy testing
The test offers the opportunity to check for pregnancy from a milk sample that has been taken at your routine milk recording or through individual post sampling.
This is a much simpler way to test cows for pregnancy compared to scanning cows later in the year.
Commenting on how milk pregnancy testing works, Loic Commun, veterinarian for IDEXX, said: “The test targets proteins in the milk that are specific to pregnancy.”
The proteins the test checks for are PAGs (pregnancy associated glycoproteins).
Loic continued: “The test can detect pregnancies in cows that have been artificially inseminated (AI) longer than 28 days.
“It is really convenient because you can test cows for pregnancy while also completing your normal milk recording – this creates no extra work for farmers.”
Loic noted that cow identification is very important when completing milk pregnancy testing to ensure that accurate results are achieved.
The inaccurate identification of cows can result in cows being falsely determined to be pregnant or not.
Accuracy of 98.7%
The use of milk pregnancy testing can replace the need for farmers to scan cows.
The test has three varieties, depending on the expected pregnancy of the cow: Early test; confirmation test; and pre dry-off test.
The early test is used from 28 days after AI to identify non-pregnant cows as early as possible, so the cow can be re-inseminated quickly.
Meanwhile, the confirmation test, used from 70 to 110 days, is utilised to detect embryonic death.
Finally, the pre dry-off test can be used in late gestation to avoid drying off a non-pregnant cow in anticipation of calving.
On a herd that began breeding on June 1, Loic recommends a test for early July for all cows having more than 28 days post breeding at that time. The farmer can identify non-pregnant cows and rebreed them quickly.
This allows you to achieve a compact calving period.
Commenting on accuracy of the test, Loic said: “The accuracy of the test has been estimated at 98.7%.
“Compared to an ultrasound at 30 days, it is very accurate. with an ultrasound’s accuracy depending on the person testing the cows.”
Less stress and labour
The use of milk pregnancy testing also has a number of advantages over the conventional scanning of cows.
Scanning is usually a stressful day for both the farmer and the animal. It can often result in cows having to stand in concrete yards for an extended period of time.
This added stress can have an impact on cows, but so will the time lost grazing, which may have an impact on cow performance.
Milk pregnancy testing has a positive impact on animal welfare.
Loic said: “This test is very useful on Irish farms because you do not have to hold cows and prevent them from returning to grass.
“You can test as many cows as you want without needing to hold them back for a vet or scanner to arrive.
“Samples are collected during milking and then cows can return to grass, with it a labour and time saver for farmers.”
This results in accurate pregnancy detection of cows and increased profitability in terms of maximising milk production.
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