Researchers have made a breakthrough that could be a real game changer for the animal welfare industry. During a research study, they found they were able to bring infertility to mice by giving one shot of a very specific antibody into the mice they were working with.
Both genders are rendered sterile by the antibody; males stopped making sperm and females halted egg production, says The Blaze. Within two months after the mice received their injection, they were unable to reproduce and appeared to have zero side effects.
"That two month delay is because of how long it takes the muscle to start producing enough antibodies," biologist Bruce Hays explains. "Going forward, one goal is certainly to try other systems that wouldn't have that time lag." Hays is one of the researchers working on the project at The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
The study, published in Current Biology, dated Oct. 5, is being touted as the "holy grail" of animal population control and animal welfare experts are anxious to see what further research shows.
The research centers around the animals' immune system where the antibodies within this specific DNA work inside inactive virus shells. Once injected into the mice, their muscles become anti-gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), antibody producers, making them sterile.
"This looks incredibly promising," says William Swanson, director of animal research at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden in Ohio, according to Info Wars. "We're all very excited about this approach; that it's going to be the one that really works."
Will this drug work with other animals besides mice? "The challenge is always moving between species," says Swanson, according to Science Magazine. Swanson has already devised plans to try Hays' research on cats. .
"If it works, Swanson says," it could change the way communities deal with feral cat populations. We have to figure out how to control these populations without being harmful to individual cats. And this kind of lifelong contraception might be a safe, effective way to do that."
