Comparison of pregnancy detection methods in live white‐tailed deer

Abstract

Assessing ungulate reproduction is important to biologists for managing populations and predicting trends. We compared efficacy of trans‐abdominal ultrasound and pregnancy‐specific protein B (PSPB) white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) pregnancy estimates, respectively, from January to mid‐April 2009–2011 in the south‐central Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA. We observed a strong agreement (K = 0.68, SE = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.42–0.94) of PSPB and ultrasound in categorizing pregnant and nonpregnant deer. Five deer were determined to be pregnant by ultrasound but not by PSPB and 6 females were judged to be nonpregnant using either method. Total cost for PSPB testing of 101 deer was US$2,220, whereas ultrasound equipment cost US$14,150. Trans‐abdominal ultrasound and PSPB provided accurate detection of pregnancy in live white‐tailed deer. We recommend PSPB for studies testing comparatively small numbers (up to several hundred) of deer. However, we recommend ultrasonography if real‐time pregnancy determination is needed (e.g., vaginal implant transmitter use), particularly for large numbers (i.e., several hundred to thousands) of deer. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.

Carnivore space use shifts in response to seasonal resource availability

“…, Duquette et al. ). Vaginal implant transmitters contained temperature‐sensitive switches that emitted a unique pulse frequency when expelled during parturition (Carstensen et al.…”

“…We manually restrained captured deer and handinjected them with an intramuscular injection of xylazine (100 mg/mL; X-Ject E; Butler Schein Animal Health, Dublin, Ohio, USA) and ketamine (100 mg/mL; Ketaset; Fort Dodge Laboratories, Fort Dodge, Iowa, USA; . We fitted pregnant does with very high-frequency (VHF) radiocollars (Model 2610B, Advanced Telemetry Systems, Isanti, Minnesota, USA; Model 500, Telonics, Mesa, Arizona, USA) and vaginal implant transmitters (VIT; Model 3930, Advanced Telemetry Systems, Isanti, Minnesota, USA; Carstensen et al 2003, Duquette et al 2012. Vaginal implant transmitters contained temperature-sensitive switches that emitted a unique pulse frequency when expelled during parturition (Carstensen et al 2003).…”

“…We located neonate deer opportunistically or by systematically searching areas near expelled vaginal implant transmitters (Carstensen et al 2003). Upon capture, we manually restrained, weighed, and fitted fawns with uniquely numbered ear tags (model agpf#1, Allflex, DFW Airport, Texas, USA) and expandable VHF radiocollars (Model M4200; Advanced Telemetry Systems, Isanti, Minnesota, USA; Duquette et al 2012) equipped with motionsensitive mortality switches, and then released fawns at their respective capture sites.…”

Influence of body mass and environmental conditions on winter mortality risk of a northern ungulate: Evidence for a late‐winter survival bottleneck

“…Because deer captured using Clover traps and rocket nets can experience capture myopathy‐related mortality (Beringer, Hansen, Wilding, Fisher, & Sheriff, ), deer were not included in survival models until 2 weeks postcapture. As yearling deer captured in this study had different patterns in body mass and pregnancy rates than older deer (Duquette, Belant, Beyer, & Jr, & Svoboda, N. J., ), survival analysis was limited to deer >2.5 years old.…”

Body condition and dosage effects on ketamine–xylazine immobilization of female white‐tailed deer

“…Our results suggest that animal condition can influence deer induction success, because body condition was an influential variable explaining deer induction success. However, because deer in our study area had minimal fat reserves (Duquette et al 2012) and we found no difference in induction time between injection sites, we suggest that muscle mass likely had a greater influence on deer induction rate than did soft tissue (i.e., subcutaneous body fat).…”