Q. What is BioPRYN®? A. BioPRYN® is a blood pregnancy test for ruminants, and has specific appeal for the commercial U.S. livestock industries, because it delivers fast, accurate, safe and economical pregnancy diagnostic results. Q. What does the test name stand for? A. The test’s name is a partial acronym for “Pregnant Ruminant Yes/No,” and the technology works on all ruminants, A specific test using ELISA technology, which produces fast results, has been develop for use exclusively in cattle, sheep goats, bison and deer. Q. How does BioPRYN® detect pregnancies? A. BioPRYN® evaluates the blood (more specifically, the serum or plasma) of ruminants for a protein called Pregnancy Specific Protein B (PSPB). PSPB is produced by the placenta, and therefore pregnant animals will have the protein in their blood. This makes the test more accurate than earlier attempts at pregnancy diagnosis that evaluated blood or milk for progesterone or other hormones that can occur in normally cycling animals. Q. How early in a pregnancy can animals be tested with BioPRYN®? A. Cows can be tested at 28 days or later after breeding. Heifers can be tested at 25 days or later after breeding. Lactating cows have residual PSPB from the previous pregnancy until 90 days after calving. To be safe in not getting a false-positive result, breeders are cautioned to take the sample at 28 days or more after breeding, and 73 days or more after calving. Thus if a cow is bred at 45 days after calving, it is appropriate to take the 28 days post-breeding sample, which is 73 days after calving. If she is bred at 55 days after calving, then the post-breeding sample should be taken at 23 days so that the cow is 73 days post-calving. Animals that are detected open can then be immediately returned to aggressive breeding programs using Lutalyse®, CIDRs® and/orOvSynch®. Q. What is the accuracy of BioPRYN®? A. BioPRYN® has been shown to have an overall accuracy rate of 97 percent. In fact, the test is over 99 percent accurate if the cow is called not pregnant, with less than 1 percent showing false-open (false-negative). Correct open detection is very important because giving Lutalyse or other synchronizing drugs to misdiagnosed pregnant cows will cause abortion. The false-pregnant (false-positive) rate for the test is approximately 5 percent. In practice, high-producing dairy cows tend to show slightly higher false-positive rates of 7 to 8 percent, especially during periods of extremely hot weather. It is presumed that a portion of this variance is due to higher early embryonic death, and not to test inaccuracy. Q. How much does BioPRYN® cost? A. The test itself costs $2.75, plus the cost of a sample tube and needle. Shipping expenses also must be added if the tests are mailed in. Q. How long does it take to receive the test results? A. The test requires 24 hours from laboratory set-up to reporting. A report will be emailed between 9:00 and 10:00 AM the following morning they arrive.