Scientists Develop New Birth Control for Female Cats--No Surgery Necessary

[Judi Lynn]

The one-time injection of a gene therapy could eventually be used to control cat populations

Will Sullivan

June 8, 2023 8:12 a.m.

Researchers have developed a permanent birth control for female cats that would mean the animals don’t have to undergo invasive surgery to be spayed, according to a new study. The single injection could aid the effort to control cat numbers globally.

The world cat population has reached an estimated 600 million, and roughly 80 percent of them are free-roaming. These natural hunters cause a lot of harm to wildlife: In the United States alone, domestic cats kill between 1.3 billion and 4 billion birds and between 6.3 billion and 22.3 billion mammals each year. Currently, the main method for sterilizing cats involves surgery—a costly and risky procedure.

The new technique, described in a paper published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, involves a one-time injection of a gene therapy that could provide long-term birth control for female cats. The preliminary study was small and involved only nine felines, six of which received the treatment. Later this year, researchers will meet with the Food and Drug Administration to discuss how to further test their method, David Pépin, a co-author of the new study and molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School, tells Inverse’s Elana Spivack.

“This is really exciting, and I hope it will pan out,” Julie Levy, a veterinarian at the University of Florida who did not contribute to the research, tells the New York Times’ Alla Katsnelson. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could send out a technician into the field to inject cats and then let them go?”

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-develop-new-birth-control-for-female-cats-no-surgery-necessary-180982319/