Twelve female adult pacas weighting from 8 to 10 kilograms and identified by microchip applied in the cervicodorsal region were used. These animals belong to the Wild Animal Sector of the College of Agricultural and Veterinarian Sciences, São Paulo State University, Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil. Aiming the breeding, the animals were kept in groups of one male and two females per pen of 15 m2 area, with a ater flow of one meter in width, 1.5 m of length and 0.5 m of depth. There was also a brick burrow, subdivided in three inside portions.
The feeding of the animals was done with rodent food (LabinaTM, Agribands do Brasil Ltda®, Brazil), in the quantity of 1.00% of its body weight a day, and fresh fruits (10.00 to 20.00% of its body weight a day).
To make each ultrasound session, the females were captured using a polypropylene net attached to a wire loop and then taken to a room next to the pens where the hair clipping was performed with stainless steel blades, and for that, only the hind limb members were kept lifted in the abdominal region exteriorized of the net, since the maintenance of the female on dorsal recumbency was inappropriate because the animal is aggressive (Figure 1).
After the hair clipping, the female was kept in an iron bar squeeze cage and after the paca immobilization, which was kept in standing position, an ultrasound sessions was initiated. The cage was covered in its anterior part with a black cloth, and fresh fruits were furnished during these sessions, aiming to lessen the animal stress (Figure 2).
The B mode ultrasound exams were performed with a two-frequency sectorial electronic transducer of 5.0 and 7.5 MHz (LC 100 VetTM, Pie Medical®, The Netherlands) and each session took from 10 to 15 minutes.
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