VENKATA NAIDU, G (Major)SRINIVAS, MANDADEVI PRASAD, VSRILATHA, BETHAPUDI2017-08-022017-08-022014-10http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810027111ABSTRACT: The aim of the present investigation was to evaluate the different methods of early pregnancy diagnosis viz., Heat-aid rapid detection kit, Serum progesterone assay, Punyakoti test and Transrectal ultrasonography and to compare between and among different methods. The present study was conducted on 86 Graded Murrah buffaloes aged between 4 to 8 years showing estrus signs and were artificially inseminated upon rectal and ultrasonographic observations. These were randomly divided into four test groups and pregnancy diagnosis was carried out at an early stage from day 20 post insemination. Pregnancy diagnosis in Group 1 (Heat-aid kit) was carried out using qualitative commercial kit on day 21 post insemination with appearance of pink colour in nonpregnant and no colour change in pregnant buffaloes. Buffaloes in Group II (Serum progesterone assay) were analyzed for early pregnancy with estimation of serum progesterone concentration on day 21 post insemination using ELISA and were recorded as 4.63 ± 0.93 and 0.954 ± 0.318 ng/ml in pregnant and nonpregnant buffaloes, respectively. Pregnancy diagnosis in Group III (Punyakoti test) was undertaken using seed germination inhibition test at day 26 post insemination and the buffaloes diagnosed pregnant showed significant inhibition of seed germination and shoot length than the nonpregnant buffaloes with a mean germination inhibition percentage (%) and shoot length (cm) of 70.66 ± 1.63 ; 3.33 ± 0.074 and 45.99 ± 1.84 ; 5.44 ± 0.17 in pregnant and nonpregnant buffaloes, respectively. Buffaloes in Group IV (Transrectal ultrasonography) were analyzed for early pregnancy using ultrasound at day 20, 25 and 30 post insemination. Pregnant buffaloes showed anechoic embryonic vesicle within the echogenic uterus on day 20, expansion of embryonic vesicle and embryo proper in some buffaloes on day 25 and clear visualization of anechoic embryonic vesicle and echogenic embryo proper in all pregnant buffaloes on day 30 post insemination. Confirmation of pregnancy in all the buffaloes that were selected in the four test groups was done by rectal examination at day 45-60 post insemination. The overall diagnostic accuracy of Group I, II, III and IV was 93.75, 85.00, 75.00 and 100 per cent on days 21, 21, 26 and 30 post insemination. The study concluded that Heat-aid kit and Transrectal ultrasonography was 100 per cent accurate in diagnosing nonpregnancy. Among all the diagnostic techniques in the present study, transrectal ultrasonography was more accurate in diagnosing pregnancy and nonpregnancy from day 25 post insemination.ennullThesis