Professional Use of Progesterone Assay for Pregnancy Diagnosis and Reproductive Programme Monitoring in a Large Commercial Piggery in Rivers State, South South Nigeria

Progesterone assay provides an objective hormonal basis for pregnancy confirmation and reproductive programme evaluation in intensive pig enterprises. This study evaluated the professional application of serum progesterone measurement in pregnancy diagnosis and monitoring at a commercial piggery operation in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, South South Nigeria. One hundred and twenty Large White-Landrace crossbred sows were enrolled over three successive reproductive batches. Blood samples collected at days eighteen, twenty-one, and twenty-five post-insemination were assayed for serum progesterone by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Progesterone values above 5 ng/mL on day eighteen were used as the initial pregnancy positivity criterion, with confirmation by real-time abdominal ultrasonography at day twenty-eight. Progesterone-based diagnosis achieved a sensitivity of 87% and specificity of 91% compared to ultrasonographic confirmation. False negative rates were predominantly associated with early embryonic mortality occurring between progesterone sampling and ultrasound confirmation. Conception rates improved by 11% following introduction of the hormonal monitoring protocol due to earlier identification and re-insemination of non-pregnant sows. Progesterone profiles also identified cases of pseudopregnancy in four sows across the study period. Implementation of this protocol reduced the average farrowing interval by eight days across the three batches. This study demonstrates that progesterone assay is a practical and high-value professional tool for reproductive management optimisation in South South Nigerian commercial piggeries. Keywords: progesterone, pregnancy diagnosis, swine reproduction, commercial piggery, Rivers State.