Detection of bovine fetal Y-specific Sry sequence from maternal blood

Two pairs of primers were designed based on the sequence of bovine Sry and applied to the assay of Sry sequence from maternal blood using the polymerase chain reaction. Of the total twenty DNA samples from peripheral blood of late pregnant cow, nine appeared positive with male-specific Sry sequence. The fetal sex predicted by the PCR analysis of maternal blood DNA accorded with the sex of babies on delivery in 16 cows (the remaining four were false negative). Our methods showed that bovine Sry sequence can be directly detected from the maternal blood for identifying fetal sex.