Messing with Nature

[Homicidalheathen]

Early menopause could control stoats, possums: pest experts

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Sun, 31 May 2009

News: Farming

Pest control experts are looking at testing on possums and stoats a chemical that triggers an accelerated menopause in mammals.

Landcare Research is currently in discussions with an American company, Senestech, which is developing the technology.

Phil Cowan, science leader on pest control technologies for Landcare told NZPA the state science company is negotiating an agreement "that will allow us to initiate joint research on these particular compounds later this year for possums and stoats".

The technology to chemically sterilise feral female pests stems from work done by scientists in Arizona, who investigated potential damage caused to ovarian follicles in women exposed to a chemical compound known as 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide, or VCD, used in manufacturing rubber tyres, polyesters and plastics.

A researcher at Northern Arizona University, Loretta Mayer found the non-toxic chemical also caused infertility in rats, and a company on the university campus at Flagstaff is developing it as a pest control.

Details were revealed to an invitation-only workshop on fertility control in wildlife management at Landcare's Lincoln campus.

The meeting was organised by the New Zealand government and the governments of Australia, the United States, and Britain, as part of development of more effective methods for wildlife management.

The first product being rolled out by an American company, SenesTech, is ContraPest to cut rat numbers in Southeast Asia's rice paddies, where rodents eat up to a third of the crop.

This is already being tested in Indonesia -- the world's largest producer of rice -- and the next test sites will be in the Philippines and Vietnam. And it is being registered for rodent control in Australia, where mice can be a serious problem in grain stores.

Now the company is developing another product, ChemSpay, which has already been proven to induce permanent sterility in female dogs after one exposure to the drug.

Dr Mayer and her team of researchers also are adapting the technology platform for population management of wild animals such as deer, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, horses, buffalo and elk as well as cats and dogs.

New Zealand has problems with feral cats, dogs, deer, elk and horses as well as possums and stoats.

Australia hopes to use the technology to use in managing kangaroo, wallaby and camel populations

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A breakthrough in the search for a possum contraceptive could cut the use of the controversial pest-control poison 1080.

A new hormone disruption treatment has been successfully trialled by injecting captive possums at Wellington Zoo, making some infertile for up to two years.

The challenge now is to find a way of introducing the method to possums in the wild, possibly using baits.

"It was an exciting result, but delivery is the key, and we hope to have some field trials under way by 2013," Associate Professor Doug Eckery, of Victoria University, said.

The brushtail possum is an introduced marsupial that has become New Zealand's leading pest in both ecological and economical terms, with an estimated population of 70 million.

About $110 million is spent each year trying to control the species using poison, including 1080, which some groups say causes harm to native bird and animal life.

The new research, carried out by the university's School of Biological Sciences and the National Research Centre for Possum Biocontrol, focused on the formation of ovaries, the regulation of hormones and the growth of eggs.

"First we identified a hormone produced in the brain that is a key regulator of fertility in possums. In subsequent studies, we've been able to successfully disrupt the actions of this hormone," Prof Eckery said.

There was a move toward non-lethal possum control methods.

"Following the recent reassessment of 1080 poison in New Zealand by the Environmental Risk Management Authority, a recommendation was given for more research into alternative methods of possum control."

Conservation Department spokesman Herb Christophers welcomed the breakthrough, and said it would be keen to support field trials "if appropriate".

"Any tool we can get to try and reduce possum populations is a benefit."

Wellington Zoo chief executive Karen Fifield said the project fitted its aim of protecting native plant and animal life

[AstralCrux]

I'm not cool with ChemSpray or any of that going near food I eat.

[ttogreh]

Wait... we are going about this all wrong.

Shouldn't we be trying to humanely limit the human population? We're the only ones who can.