Diagnostic aids for the detection of urine in the equine ejaculate.

An experiment was conducted to evaluate three commercially available test kits, the Azostix, Multistix and Uric-acid test, for the detection of urine in the equine ejaculate. Azostix, which tests for urea nitrogen, consistently detected urine in the equine ejaculate. Urine contamination was evident when a color change occurred in the reagent pad, going from yellow to green after 10 sec of exposure. The sensitivity of Azostix to urea nitrogen in contaminated samples was 39 mg/dl. The Multistix test kit also successfully detected urine in semen. In the Multistix nitrite pad the color changed from yellow to organge after 3.5 min of exposure to urine-contaminated semen. The Uricacid test kit did not accurately detect urine-contaminated samples. It constantly elicited false positive results in all the control trials. The results of this study show that Azostix and Multistix are cost effective ($1.25 per analysis) and accurate diagnostic aids for detecting urine in the stallion ejaculate.