Evaluation of seric levels of progesterone in sows during gestation

Abstract

In this work, 30 adult Landrace x Large White crossbred sows were used, raised under industrial management conditions. The objective was to determine the progesterone blood serial levels during the gestation period. Blood samples were collected at the same interval, between 08:00 and 10.00 AM, in a total of 10 venous pinctions, distributed as following: days zero, 1^st, 4 ^th, 7^th, 23^rd, 57^th, 83^rd, 107^th, 112^th and 114^th day taking day zero as the day of the second and last sating and day first the ionediatelly subsequent. Hormonal dosage assays were performed using the technique of radioimunoassay (RIE) in solid phase, with a kit of comercial reagents (COAT-A-COUNT ^R). Results showed increasing values for progesterone since day zero until the day 107^th, decreasing thereafter.