A urine-based test that can detect pregnancy from as early as 38 days is now being sold in New Zealand.
 The Wee-Foal-Checker can help take the guesswork out of breeding, especially if the mare is giving conflicting signals. |
The product, WeeFoal 38, has been imported from the United States by the New Zealand developer of Wee-Foal-Checker, a mare-side urine test which can detect pregnancy from 110 days.
Wee-Foal-Checker developer, Dr Keith Henderson, of AgResearch's Hopkirk Research Institute, had distributed some of the test kits for evaluation and said he found they worked well from the 50-day mark.
"We have been finding that if you use it at day 38 you can get false negatives."
The lines on the test strip that indicate the result can also be quite faint closer to the 38-day mark, becoming much stronger if used around the 50-60 day mark.
He said he was at this stage recommending their use from the 50-day mark, preferring to gather more data before following the US advice that they can be used from 38-days.
He is now marketing the new tests on Trade Me, or they can be bought through the contact details on http://weefoalchecker.co.nz.
Because the lines in early tests can be faint, he is suggesting people send a urine sample to Massey University's AgResearch laboratory for the test to be carried out there.
Before the next breeding season, the website selling his own Wee-Foal-Checker, will be updated to also sell the new product.
Dr Henderson said another option he was considering with the new test, which costs $40-$45, was to initially offer a backup laboratory confirmation urine test from the 110-day mark.
The new test was developed in the United States.
Dr Henderson said it measured a different urine component from Wee-Foal-Checker, which detects estrone sulphate.
He said scientists around the world had been trying to develop a reliable urine-based test for use from around the 38-day mark but measurable levels were very low.
He said a blood test was available from day 42 to determine pregnancy, which measures levels of equine chorionic gonodatropin, formerly known as pregnant mare serum gonadotropin.
However, the molecule is too big to pass out through the kidneys and into the urine. "Most [scientists] have been unable to detect anything at all," he says.
Developers of the US test must have identified a sub-unit of the molecule which it can detect and measure in the urine, he said.
Dr Henderson is continuing efforts to develop his own pregnancy test able to be used sooner than Wee-Foal-Checker.
A Wee-Foal-Checker test sells for $30 in New Zealand.
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