Did you know that of the 700 million dogs in the world, over 75% of them are free roaming? This creates unchecked reproduction and is linked with poor health and short lifespans of the dogs and a host of other problems for society. Nonsurgical techniques to control fertility in dogs – including chemical sterilants like calcium chloride – were the subject of a comprehensive review article that recently came out. “Nonsurgical fertility control for managing free-roaming dog populations: a review of products and criteria for field applications” written by Giovanna Massei and Lowell Miller was published in Theriogenology. The authors covered a variety of techniques for dog contraception and sterilization and included a decision tree to assist with analysis of which method might be best in each circumstance. Free roaming dog populations increase disease transmission to humans and other animals, predation of livestock, bites, traffic accidents and nuisance behaviors. The authors called for further evaluation of the use of nonsurgical methods for mass sterilization campaigns and integration with vaccination and public education programs.
Dr. Massei is with FERA (the Food and Environment Research Agency in the UK) that was the convener for First Annual Conference on Dog Population Management. Parsemus presented about the use of calcium chloride dihydrate as a nonsurgical contraceptive at the FERA conference.
You can read the abstract of the article here.
