BLM to start using PZP vaccine in Mustangs

[eventualeventer]

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Fewer Bureau of Land Management (BLM) mustangs will be removed from the range and more mustang mares will receive anti-fertility treatment under a new management strategy plan announced by agency director Bob Abbey on Feb. 24.

Under the plan, the BLM will reduce the number of wild horses slated for removal during the next two years from 10,000 to 7,600, unless conditions such as drought or other emergencies require removing more animals.


The agency also intends to treat more mares with the contraceptive porcine zona pellucida (PZP). Injected as a liquid or fed in pellet form to fertile mares aged 4 to 20 years, a single PZP vaccination renders treated mares infertile for 22 months.


Abbey said the plan will be put in place in advance of results from a National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council (NAS/NRC) review of the BLM's wild horse and burro management operations.


(see more at link)

Any thoughts? I have some misgivings about this, but I'll admit I don't know as much as I'd like to about it. While the vaccine has been used successfully on Assateague Island, that is a much smaller population that is already rounded up annually. Some studies in non-Assateague populations of horses have found that the PZP vaccine changes estrous cycles and social structure. The mares will have to be rounded up every two years to give the vaccine, so it doesn't exactly replace roundups. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, in any case.

 

[Knockout4]

That will be interesting. I do not know as much about it as I would like either, thanks for posting the link.

 

[TomTheK9Fixr]

Hmm, on a slightly off-topic note, I remember reading a 'proposal' for anyone to create an effective, easy to administer sterility treatment to feral cats and dogs. The 'reward' was $60 million, I think. This was in a DVM360 about a year ago... This sounds similar but it is not quite there as it lasts only 22 months. Interesting nonetheless.

Edit: After a quick google search I found the link. The reward was $25 million grants up to $50 million.