Do human pregnancy tests work on Horses?

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sarah-jayne-1

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Im am currently studying my BSc Equine Science degree and my disertation topic is 'Do human pregnancy tests wrok on the Equine'

I was hoping to test approximatly 15 horses myself for this experiment but do to weather and the time of year i have struggled with this. I was hoping that people could help me by answering a couple of the questions below, and share your experiences of using human tests on horses, this would be a great help for me on my disertation.

Questions:
1.Have you ever used human pregnancy tests on your horses?
2. What was the result?
3. How many days of gestation did you do the test?
4. Was your mare in foal?
5. How did you confirm the pregnancy? i.e. Bloods, Ultrasound etc.

Thank you for your help
Sarah
 
No I haven't, unless you count the Old Wives Tale of the wedding ring (OK, anything metal)

I use it all the time, mainly just for fun, but within 48 hours of service it tells me whether a mare is in foal or not, it has never been wrong yet, mind, my mares run with the stallion so he is also a pretty good indicator too.

I hasten to add that I DO have mares scanned at 14 days.
 
sarah-jayne-1 said:
Im am currently studying my BSc Equine Science degree and my disertation topic is 'Do human pregnancy tests wrok on the Equine'
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Human pregnancy tests -do not- work in equines. Human pregnancy tests tend to measure levels of Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG). Equines do not produce hCG. They produce Equine Chorionic Gonadotrophin (eCG, previously known as PMSG - Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotrophin).

The two hormones are not similar enough for eCG to be picked up by a test for hCG and vice versa. I believe that eCG consists of 182 amino acids, whereas hCG consists of 244 amino acids.
 
No they do not work on horses, but they do on primates. The human reproductive system is very different from a Horse and Human pregnany kits test for hCG (Human chorionic gonadotropin) which is not present in the horse. There are horse urine pregnancy kits on the market developed in New Zeland, they test for estrone sulphate produced by the foetus.

He beat me too it!!!
 
AndyPandy your explanation is perfect!

sarah-jayne-1 have you run that dissertation topic by your lecturer? Where are you studying?
 
Yes i have ran it passed my Tutors, it doesnt matter if it doesnt work, it is jst a test to see if it could. I no about the differences but from the results i have got from the horses i have studied there are some inconclusive results, i jst wanted to know if any one had tried them and what their results are.
 
Im not just asking wether they work, i just wanted to know if people had tried it or not. Even if they do not work, which i didnt think they would it is interesting to know wether people had tried to do it, i no quite a few that have but could do with some other peoples experiences.
 
wel i ahd never thought of it until my tutor mentioned it as a possible dissertation subject. the results ive got have cum back inconclusive, some r negative nd some r not easy to tel wot they are.
 
Are you just looking at early ie up to around 42 days or are you testing for later too? I know some people have posted regarding if their mare is still in foal at around 300 + days.

I know they shouldn't work but if some have then maybe they would be able to be used to check at the later stages?
 
sarah-jayne-1 said:
...which i didnt think they would it is interesting to know wether people had tried to do it, i no quite a few that have but could do with some other peoples experiences.
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There are a couple of people on the forum, who may have already contacted you, who tried human pregnancy tests on their mares last year. Their results, without exception, were negative whether or not the mares were in foal.
 
That sounds way to limited a subject for a dissertation, it is something that could essentially be answered in two sentances. Now I'm no vet but I know that a pregnancy test will test for a certain chemical indicator, it will only work if that same chemical is also produced in the early stages of pregnancy in a horse.

How on earth are you going to get 2000 words or whatever out of that????
 
Still not sure what you could gain from any pregnancy test on a horse as scanning still needs to be done and 16 days post covering is not long to wait for a result!!

Can you actually get horse pregnancy test kits and if so in what circumstances would they be used?
 
Sorry but I agree with Katt, and for a dissertation you will need a lot more than 2000 words! I am suprised your lecturer suggested that as a subject. Are you doing a BSc? I just think you will really struggle to find enough literature to do a literature review. When is your dissertation due and have you already started it?
 
Personally I'd be looking at another idea for a dissertation, unless you go into human physcology I don't see how your going to have enough to write about.

if you are interested in breeding, could you not look more into that as there will be wealth of knowledge and topics to choose from. Where are you going to get quotes from in relation to using human pregnancy tests on horses?!
 
my dissertation is due in in 6 weeks, i hav found loads of literature on different types of pregnancy tests, and about how hormones work in the horse, i have also found work on hCG use in horses and eCG use in humans. There is alot of work on different things, the lit review does not have to be on the topic, it is work around the topic, so lots of different things to do. Even if the test come back as negative all the time, i can write how there is a differnece and y the test is not compatible for horses. it is 10,000 words, but that is with lit review, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion, and further work.

AndyPandy, i have not been contacted by the people u have mentioned but i would b interested in their experiences.
 
I do know someone who used a Clear Blue pregnancy test on a pony mare they bought which got fatter and fatter - it did show positive and the mare was pregnant and foaled around 3 weeks later - saw the test done myself else I wouldn't have believed it.

I just presumed at the time that a mare may have naturally a higher level of hormone that would pick up a positive than humans and the test therefore would always show positive - certainly not something I'd do myself to test for pregnancy so never really looked further into it.
 
As I understand it, Clearblue tests have a relatively high false positive rate in humans... and the same would apply to equines; except it would always be a -false- positive, because it's not measuring an equine pregnancy hormone :)
 
sarah-jayne-1 said:
Yes i have ran it passed my Tutors, it doesnt matter if it doesnt work, it is jst a test to see if it could. I no about the differences but from the results i have got from the horses i have studied there are some inconclusive results, i jst wanted to know if any one had tried them and what their results are.
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What uni are you at if you don't mind me asking??
 
Sarah Jane ,

I am also looking into human pregnancy tests and whether they work on equines. I would be interested in looking at your completed dissertation if it is available online ? i have found a lot of interesting information regarding this subject and would like to read your findings?

Thanks again

Amy
 
JohnBauer said:
Sarah - good question and interesting topic to be studying. Text books say that they won't work on horses, i have heard that they work on some kinds of monkey but don't take this as a fact! I breed and have never thought to try one on my mares as 1)they are said not to work due to detecting HCG rather than ECG 2)it would be quite tricky to obtain a sample 3)the mares need scanning in case of twins etc anyway, so a bit pointless. Good luck with your studies.
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Hello John,

What textbooks have you read that states that they do not work as this is very interesting and i would like to read their reasoning behind the statement ?
 
Didn't years ago over the counter human pregnancy tests used different hormones/chemicals to what they used now? Now they are pretty accurate but in the olden days they were not reliable and the Dr's was the only place you could get an accurate test. May be worth looking at.
 
Hollycatt said:
Didn't years ago over the counter human pregnancy tests used different hormones/chemicals to what they used now? Now they are pretty accurate but in the olden days they were not reliable and the Dr's was the only place you could get an accurate test. May be worth looking at.
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New pregnancy tests look at levels of hCG. Equine produce eCG which by the research i have looked into is anatomically similar. eCG used to be called pmsg however due to the similarities to hCG it is now more commonly known as eCG. Research was carried out where they used eCG in goats for induction of estrus outside the breeding season. They stated that hCG can be considered to substitute eCG without a decrease in efficency. Therefore this leads me to believe they have similar properties. This was then backed up another paper i found stating that both eCG and hCG have a structural homology of the beta subunit. eCG in a mare however peaks at between 40-60 days after a pregnancy occurs and then significantly drops. It could mean that a human pregnancy test would work in this window of time more effectively than later in pregnancy. All food for thought hey !!
 
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