Gestation diagnosis in swine herds is very important due to the necessity of identifying reproductive failure and, consequently, decreasing non-productive days and piglet production cost. The ideal method to diagnose gestation should allow a quick confirmation of pregnancy (as soon as 18 days after mating) and should also be highly specific and sensitive. Some experiments have shown that the accuracy of gestation diagnosis by transcutaneous ultrasonography varies from 70 to 90% on day 21 of gestation, reaching 95% on day 26 (4, 5), the most satisfactory results being achieved on day 22. The aims of this experiment were to verify the performance and the execution time of the transcutaneous ultrasonography technique, using a 5 MHz frequency transducer, between days 17 and 21 (Experiment 1) and to evaluate the utilization of this technique in the field on day 21 after onset of estrus (Experiment 2).
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