Validation of 2 point-of-care meters for measuring triglycerides in chickens using whole blood and plasma

Disorders of the avian reproductive tract are common, yet monitoring their resolution presents a diagnostic dilemma. Reproductive hormones such as luteinizing hormone or estrogen are the best reflection of reproductive status, but the required sample volumes and lack of reference intervals limit their clinical utility. An alternative analyte is blood triglyceride, the concentration of which rises markedly during sustained estrogen release from the ovary. Portable meters for measuring human blood triglyceride concentration offer the advantage of using minimal sample volumes, but these have not been validated for use in birds. We assessed the precision and accuracy of 2 portable meters for measuring blood triglyceride concentration in pooled whole blood and plasma from chickens (n = 42), and performed method comparison using a reference analyzer and determined total error. Within-run repeatability was fair-to-excellent using whole blood and plasma (range: 2.5–11.5%), and between-run repeatability using plas...