Diksia.com - Researchers in the United States are developing a durable contraceptive for female cats.
This means female cats no longer need to undergo surgery to be neutered, according to a new study cited by Smithsonian Magazine.
A single injection could help control the world’s cat population.
The world cat population has reached about 600 million, and about 80 percent of those are feral.
Wild cats cause great damage to wildlife.
In the United States alone, domestic cats prey on between 1.3 and 4 billion birds and between 6.3 and 22.3 billion mammals each year.
Currently, surgery is the main method of neutering cats, and it is an expensive and risky procedure.
Meanwhile, the new technique is described in an article published Tuesday (6/6/2023) in the journal Nature Communications.
According to the study, a single injection of gene therapy could provide long-term contraception for female cats.
Later this year, the researchers will meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to discuss how to further test their method, said David Pépin, one of the study’s authors and a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School.
“It’s very exciting and I hope it goes well,” Julie Levy, a veterinarian at the University of Florida who was not involved in the study, told the New York Times.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we could send someone to the field to give the cats an injection and then release them?”
Currently, cats are sterilized by removing their reproductive organs.
This surgery increases the animal’s risk of infection and bleeding, and recovery takes seven to 10 days.
“Surgery, especially in wildlife, involves tremendous stress and expense in capturing the animal, taking it to a surgical facility, performing an operation, holding it overnight, and then releasing it,” said Aime Johnson, a veterinarian in Auburn University not involved in the operation. Study.
“A simple injection allows for instant capture, injection and release.”
Since the surgery must be performed by a specialist, the availability of veterinarians also limits progress.
