Delivering and registering species-tailored oral antifertility products: a review

Technologies that induce infertility in wildlife are advancing rapidly. This is due largely to our increasing understanding of reproductive physiology, as well as the demand for management techniques that reduce fertility rather than increase mortality. However, transferring wildlife fertility control from the laboratory into landscape-scale utility for free-ranging animal populations will be highly dependent on products possessing oral activity and cost-effectiveness. A significant challenge to the delivery process is providing the international regulators in each jurisdiction with the most relevant data packages they need to assess new products. An essential part of any product registration for free-ranging animals will be the development of species-tailored delivery systems, especially so for non-specific antifertility actives. This review examines the current range of orally deliverable antifertility options, broadly classifies them according to overall risk compared with alternative vertebrate pesticides, outlines a species-tailoring process that reduces identified risks, and encompasses the data requirements for their registration for sale in Australasia, the USA and Europe.