CHEMICAL CASTRATION OF MALE RATS FED ETHANE DIMETHANESULFONATE (EDS): A NEW APPROACH FOR POPULATION CONTROL OF RODENTS AND OTHER NUISANCE SPECIES

• Grant number: 17/10138-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: January 01, 2019
• End date: March 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Reproduction
• Principal Investigator: Wilma de Grava Kempinas
• Grantee: Cibele dos Santos Borges
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IBB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Surgical castration is the method used in the population control of domestic, experimental and production animals. However, it is not indicated in the control of synanthropic animals. Thus, chemical agents that can promote infertility, are being studied and developed in order to fill this gap. Ethane dimethanesulfonate (EDS) is an alkylating ester that acts directly on Leydig cells promoting transient infertility via intraperitoneal injection. The objective of the present study is to evaluate, for the first time, viability and efficacy in the promotion of infertility/sterility through the inclusion of EDS in food of Wistar rats. For this, the study will be divided in 2 experiments, the first one should determine the lowest effective dose to be able to induce rat infertility, while the second will evaluate if the effective dose will promote temporally infertility or sterility after a recovery period, with or without hormonal supplementation. Reproductive parameters will be evaluated, in order to determine the magnitude of the damages caused, as well as toxicological parameters to certify the safety of the proposed treatment. International partnerships have already been established to make this experiment possible. The project is innovative, current and of great relevance, considering the need for new techniques that induce infertility for synanthropic animal population control. It is an experimental study, multi and transdisciplinary, whose the results may generate new knowledge on the histophysiology of Leydig cells, as well as toxicological aspects of the alkylating agent EDS, as well as lead to improvements in public health, and have considerable socio-economic impacts, that depending on the results, there may be an interaction with the technological park, culminating in the commercial production of a stable, inexpensive and environmentally safe chemosterillant.