In pursuit of a non-surgical birth control technique for dogs, cats

Veterinarians are currently opting for surgical solutions

September 20, 2019 01:01 am | Updated 03:57 am IST - CHENNAI

Chennai has a population of over one lakh dogs.

Chennai has a population of over one lakh dogs.

India is home to 35 million street dogs and lakhs of cats, and their ever increasing population is posing a challenge to veterinarians. On Thursday, the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS) organised a national symposium on “Current Trends in Contraception: Opportunities and Challenges for Population Control in Dogs and Cats”.

The alarming situation was explained by Director of Clinics S. Balasubramanian, who said a male dog, left free, could produce 67,000 offspring in a short span of six years. “A cat and its progeny are capable of producing over two lakh offspring in eight years,” he said.

Even though Chennai has a population of over one lakh dogs, the Veterinary College in Vepery sees a maximum of 45 dogs and cats being brought in for population control in a month.

Dr. Balasubramaniam said TANUVAS was already working on a single intravasal injection with styrene maleic anhydride (SMA) for contraception on rats. “This process can be reversed by dimethyl sulfoxide if the owner of the dog wants it to breed,” he said. C. Balachandran, vice-chancellor, TANUVAS, said at present, veterinarians were opting for surgical methods for population control. “We are working on innovations in non-surgical fertility techniques to control the population in a safe and humane way,” he explained.

He said the symposium would share progress towards new non-surgical methodologies in reproductive biology, molecular biology, immunology and other related disciplines. P. Sridevi, professor, Department of Clinics, said research was ongoing to test the possibility of administering one injection that would offer a permanent solution. “One such method is vectored contraception,” she said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.