Patent ID: 6869770

Claim:
A method for detecting pregnancy in a bovine animal comprising: (a) obtaining a sample from said animal; and (b) contacting said sample with an antibody that binds immunologically to at least one pregnancy associated antigen (PAG), wherein said PAG is present in early pregnancy and undetectable at about two months post-partum, and wherein said PAG is selected from the group consisting of PAG4 (SEQ ID NO:27), PAG6 (SEQ ID NO:29), PAG7 (SEQ ID NO:30), PAG16 (SEQ ID NO:46); PAG17 (SEQ ID NO:29), PAG7 (SEQ ID NO:30), PAG16 (SEQ ID NO:46); PAG17 (SEQ ID NO:48); PAG20 (SEQ ID NO:54) and PAG21 (SEQ ID NO:56); and (c) detecting said PAG bound to said antibody; whereby the presence of said PAG in said sample indicates that said animal is pregnant.