Abstract

The ability to accurately identify individual Asian elephants with fertility impairments using anti-Müllarian hormone (AMH) and Inhibin B assay could, if successful, assist in identifying if an elephant would be a good candidate for artificial insemination or semen collection. This project examined the extent of ovarian reserve in female Asian elephants and reproductive status in males utilizing anti-Müllarian hormone and inhibin B enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Five categories of female and six male reproductive statuses were categorized utilizing serum samples obtained primarily from one Asian elephant herd. Categories included pre-pubertal, reproductive adolescents, mature reproductive, aged and post-reproductive for females and pre-pubertal, puberty, mature, aged, post-reproductive and castrated for males. Anti-Müllerian hormone concentrations appear to be a good candidate for reproductive monitoring in Asian elephants. Mean (±SEM) serum AMH was notably higher in males than females with overall mean of 44.7973 ng/ml and 0.0522 ng/ml respectively. Levels of AMH peaked in females during reproductive adolescent (0.0693±0.0089 ng/ml) and decreased once post reproductive (0.0300±0.0058 ng/ml). In males, concentrations were highest in pre-pubertal (80.255±19.354 ng/ml) and decreased with age reaching low concentrations once post-reproductive (2.200±0.350 ng/ml).