Thinning the herd

DALTON GARDENS - The director of the Science and Conservation Center (SCC) at ZooMontana in Billings will be giving a presentation about deer contraception in Dalton Gardens.

Jay Kirkpatrick, PhD, will provide a PowerPoint presentation via teleconference to the City Council at 5 p.m. Tuesday to educate the community on ways to manage urban deer fertility as well as how to distinguish the symptoms from the main problem.

"The problem is reproduction; that is the first point of the talk," he said.

He said he will be discussing the universal failure of traditional lethal management as well as the biology, cost, uses and benefits of the contraceptive vaccine porcine zona pellucida (PZP).

"We've been using this vaccine to manage wildlife for 30 years," Kirkpatrick said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, adding that the vaccine has successfully been used to manage African elephants in 22 different game parks for 15 years and is presently being used to manage 40 different wild horse populations in the United States, Canada and Europe. He said it's relatively simple to administer - the deer can be darted from afar - and it doesn't affect rural deer populations or go through the food chain.

"There are economic benefits. It's cheaper than lethal control," he said. "A lot of wildlife management has no animal welfare consequences. The animals in any population that is managed with fertility control will be healthier, they're going to have less mortality and they're going to live longer."

The SCC's website, www.sccpzp.org, describes PZP and how it works: "The zona pellucida (ZP) is a glycoprotein membrane that surrounds all mammalian eggs. Certain proteins in the membrane serve as the sperm receptor. The contraceptive vaccine produced by the SCC uses the ZP from the pig, thus the name porcine zona pellucida (PZP). Briefly, the PZP is produced by a complex process whereby the ZP is removed from the ovum, its glycoproteins extracted, isolated and converted into a vaccine. The vaccine stimulates the target animal to produce antibodies, which attach to its own ZP, thus blocking fertilization and causing contraception. The PZP vaccine is usually given, initially, in a series of two vaccinations 2-6 weeks apart and then a booster every eight months to a year, depending on the species. The PZP is emulsified with an adjuvant to stimulate the animal's immune system."

Kirkpatrick said Dalton's deer situation is not unique; he and his colleagues at the SCC regularly receive numerous calls from communities across the country that are working to find solutions to their urban deer concerns. Kirkpatrick, who has worked with more than 85 species and has been researching fertility control in animals since 1971, said his goal as a scientist is to "simply provide scientifically valid, vetted information" for people to make the best decisions for their communities.

"I come with no advocacy position. I come to present facts," he said. "They're your deer and it's your mind to make up what you want to do with them."

The Dalton Gardens City Hall is located at 6360 N. Fourth St. The public is welcome to attend and listen to the presentation. Because of time constraints, questions from audience members will be limited to written queries that will be forwarded to the city clerk.

Info: www.daltongardens.govoffice.com