RESUMO
Wildlife, free-ranging and captive, poses and causes serious population problems not unlike those encountered with human overpopulation. Traditional lethal control programs, however, are not always legal, wise, safe, or publicly acceptable; thus, alternative approaches are necessary. Immunocontraception of free-ranging wildlife has reached the management level, with success across a large variety of species. Thus far, the immunocontraceptive research and management applications emphasis have been centered on porcine zona pellucida and gonadotropin-releasing hormone vaccines. Contraceptive success has been achieved in more than 85 different wildlife species, at the level of both the individual animal and the population. At the population management level with free-ranging species, the primary focus has been on wild horses, urban deer, bison, and African elephants. The challenges in the development and application of vaccine-based wildlife contraceptives are diverse and include differences in efficacy across species, safety of vaccines during pregnancy, the development of novel delivery systems for wild and wary free-ranging animals, and the constraints of certain non-contraceptive effects, such as effects on behavior. Beyond the constraints imposed by the public and a host of regulatory concerns, there exists a real limitation for funding of well-designed programs that apply this type of fertility control.
Assuntos
Animais Selvagens/imunologia , Anticoncepção Imunológica/métodos , Anticoncepção Imunológica/veterinária , Fertilidade/efeitos dos fármacos , Controle da População/métodos , Resultado do Tratamento , Vacinas Anticoncepcionais/imunologia , Vacinas Sintéticas/imunologia , Animais , Antígenos/imunologia , Bovinos , Anticoncepção Imunológica/economia , Anticoncepção Imunológica/ética , Cervos/imunologia , Proteínas do Ovo/imunologia , Equidae/imunologia , Feminino , Hormônio Liberador de Gonadotropina/imunologia , Masculino , Glicoproteínas de Membrana/imunologia , Controle da População/economia , Controle da População/tendências , Receptores de Superfície Celular/imunologia , Especificidade da Espécie , Suínos/imunologia , Vacinação , Vacinas Anticoncepcionais/administração & dosagem , Vacinas Sintéticas/administração & dosagem , Zona Pelúcida/imunologia , Glicoproteínas da Zona PelúcidaRESUMO
Vaccines have been used successfully to treat and eradicate infectious diseases; this has encouraged a major drive towards development of contraceptive vaccines (immunocontraception) as an additional method against rising human and animal populations. Despite three decades worth of research in this field, there are no licensed human contraceptive vaccines and less than ten for use in animals. The development of peptide antifertility vaccines has had a substantial impact on improving safety and specificity of immunogens, but has resulted in efficacy problems. Innovative strategies have been developed to overcome these problems.
