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Applied research on milk progesterone won international acclaim

The article "Comparison of a lateral flow milk progesterone test with an enzyme immunoassay as an aid for reproductive status determination in cows” authored by the Professor of the Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, Andres Valdmann, DVetSc, and a recent graduate of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, Ats Raud, MSc, was published in the 11th issue of the “Veterinary Record”, a journal recognized amongst world's leading veterinary journals for translating research into practice.

The authors evaluated the on-farm milk progesterone lateral flow test (LFT) against the quantitative enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for assessing the accuracy in determining progesterone concentration in milk and the reproductive status of cows. The monoclonal antibody based milk progesterone EIA, worked out by A. Valdmann, is an internationally recognized method, which is, in addition to the Estonian University of Life Sciences, also applied as a research tool in the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norges million biovitenskapelige og universitet, NMBU) and Cornell University in the USA.  In addition to research purposes, milk progesterone testing has a wide range of applications in animal production and veterinary requirements including the early detection of non-pregnancy, confirmation of oestrus signs and the diagnosis of ovarian disorders.

Valdmann said that he got the idea for the study while teaching students. During the practical training in endocrinology wet labs, students use on-farm tests based on different technologies to determine milk progesterone content, and, based on the results, evaluate the reproductive status of cows. "I could not answer the students’ questions about the accuracy and repeatability of the LFT results as there was no evidence-based information available in the world scientific literature.  Dairy farmers and veterinarians also needed evidence-based information about the reliability of the test," explained Valdmann.

Valdmann and Raud found that the LFT was reliable in determining low (<2 ng/ml) and high (>10ng/ml) milk progesterone concentrations, whereas in identifying the reproductive status of cows the LFT results were comparable with EIA results, however, the quantitative EIA  was more accurate than the LFT as it enabled better non-pregnancy diagnosis.  As compared with EIA-based on-farm milk progesterone tests, which require the addition of several reagents, plus washing and incubation steps, the one-step LFT offers a big advantage in terms of ease of handling and speed. How to make an efficient use of milk progesterone testing, including the LFT, to evaluate the reproductive status of cows, i.e. obtain the maximum results with the minimum number of analyses, still calls for further studies.

“Veterinary Record” is commissioning an expert editorial comment to accompany the most significant articles published in the journal. In the Editorial "Measuring progesterone from the milk line" Professor Emeritus of the University of Liverpool Hilary Dobson acknowledges the work done by Professor Valdmann, his team and the laboratory, noting that now farmers and veterinarians have been provided with sufficient evidence-based information to decide whether the money spent on milk progesterone LFT will be worth spending.

“Veterinary Record” is the official journal of the British Veterinary Association that has been published weekly since 1888. Issue 11 of Volume 178 (2016) is available here: http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/178/11.toc

The study was supported by the Estonian Research Council. The Master’s thesis of Ats Raud was also based on this research.