PROGESTERONE PROFILES OF CROSSBRED SOWS FOLLOWING DOUBLE AND TRIPLE INJECTIONS OF CLOPROSTENOL SODIUM (SYNCHROMATE

This study was carried out to evaluate progesterone profile of crossbred sows following treatments with double and triple injections of Cloprostenol sodium (Synchromate ® ). Ten (10) apparently healthy crossbred sows were divided into 2 groups. The groups were randomly assigned to 2 treatments based on number of injections of Synchromate ® . Group 1 (n=5) received two injections of Synchromate ® (500µg) (on days 0 and 13) while Group 2 (n=5) received three injections of Synchromate ® (on day 0, 7, 13). Oestrus was monitored twice daily from 0700 – 1000 and 1500 – 1800h.Data on progesterone profile using competitive ELISA kits. The sensitivity of the assay was 0.105 ng/ml. Within assay precision, coefficients of variation for low, normal and high pooled controlled serum samples were 9.9%, 3.1% and 2.9% respectively were expressed as mean ± SEM. Student t-test was used to compare the mean values between the groups. Graphpad Prism ® data package for windows (2009) was employed for all statistical analyses. A value of P 0.05) difference in the overall mean serum P4 concentrations between groups 1 and 2. It is concluded that cloprostenol sodium can be used to synchronize sow oestrus, both double and triple injections of cloprostenol sodium produces similar effect on progesterone concentration. It is recommended that double injections of cloprostenol sodium should be used for oestrus synchronization as no statistical significant (P>0.05) differences were observed in the progesterone concentrations of both groups.