Evaluation of a non-radioactive rapid test for determination of serum progesterone in South American camelids.

Abstract

Background: Determination of the serum progesterone (P4) concentration is of high importance in reproductive medicine and may be applied for diagnosing pregnancy in South American camelids. P4 measurements in alpacas and llamas are usually performed using immunoassays, which are time consuming and require appropriate expertise of laboratory staff. In this study, the suitability of a commercial automated enzyme-linked immunofluorescence assay using a mini-VIDAS device (bioMérieux) for P4 determination in South American camelids was investigated.

Methods: Serum was prepared from the whole blood samples from 116 alpacas and 73 llamas; each sample was divided into two aliquots and stored at -20°C. Comparative P4 measurements were performed using the mini-VIDAS method and an in-house radioimmunoassay as the reference standard.

Results: The results showed a strong positive correlation between the results of the two methods (Spearman's rank correlation alpaca: rs = 0.9168 [p < 0.05]; llama: rs = 0.9040 [p < 0.05]).

Limitations: Although the measuring methods are highly correlated, deviations from the reference method occurred in the high measurement range of mini-VIDAS.

Conclusions: This study confirmed that the mini-VIDAS is suitable for determining serum P4 concentration in domestic South American camelids and provides reliable results in less than 1 hour.