But in the meantime, I'm pleased to give you a guest post from Jay Kirkpatrick, the scientist responsible for the success of PZP. Wild horses in America are the center of a complicated, hotly-debated controversy, and he has written eloquently of that dilemma elsewhere. He could write a book on this subject (and I think he should! Actually, he did write one, back in 1994 (Into the Wind), which I highly recommend if you can find it. It's lovely and informative. But here is a brief update from Jay, director of the Science and Conservation Center in Billings, Montana, developer of the PZP vaccine. Thanks so much, Jay!
The work of the Science and Conservation Center (SCC) is
focused on the non-lethal control of wildlife populations, through fertility
control, with particular emphasis on horses. To that end the SCC produces the vaccine and trains people
to use it properly. Certain wild
horse populations are being managed through fertility control for the National
Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, wild
horse sanctuaries, preserves, and various Native American tribes.
Use of the fertility control vaccine PZP for wild horses has
increased slowly over the past 25 years, but not as fast as it might have,
largely because of the social, cultural, economic and political forces that
oppose this approach. Often who
uses the vaccine and who doesn’t depends on the progressiveness of thinking
among local wild horse managers, and less on policies. This places much of the work for moving
this form of management outside the purview of science.
The SCC also manages some urban deer populations, many zoo
animals, free-roaming African elephants and bison with the contraceptive
vaccine and it is interesting that this world-wide effort had its birth on the
marshes of Assateague Island National Seashore so many years ago.
The SCC also engages in some research activities. One project is the testing of a
recombinant form of the vaccine (rZP) as an effective booster inoculation. If rZP works, it will expand the
ability to treat many more animals.
Production of the native PZP at the SCC is a time consuming,
labor-intensive endeavor and if the rZP works, the SCC would only have to
produce primer doses (the initial dose) and that would increase dramatically
the number of animals that could be treated. Other research includes species’ differences in the response
of the PZP vaccine. For example, some recent research shows that it is much
more effective in species of the goat and sheep families than in other mammals.
But, wild horses will remain the primary focus of work at
the SCC.
For more, here's a video interview with Jay (it's worth sitting through the commercial, I think. If any tech-savvy reader knows how to cut that from the clip, please let me know!):
For more, here's a video interview with Jay (it's worth sitting through the commercial, I think. If any tech-savvy reader knows how to cut that from the clip, please let me know!):
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