SBIR Phase I: Safe and effective injectable alternative to surgical spays in female dogs

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will benefit female dogs, their owners, shelters, and veterinarians with the development of a single-injection sterilant, eliminating the burden of surgical sterilization for female dogs and those that care for them. Scientists have worked for decades to develop an affordable non-surgical sterilization solution. However, efforts to date have been unsuccessful, and surgical spaying remains as the sole option available for sterilizing female animals. At present, sterilization is an invasive surgical procedure that requires the removal of a healthy animal’s reproductive organs at great risk and physical cost to the dog, financial and emotional cost to the owner, time cost to the veterinarian, and significant financial cost to shelters. Because the high cost and the risk of developing surgery-related infection or death makes surgical spays unmanageable, shelters are forced to euthanize millions of dogs each year due to overpopulation. By making spays non-surgical, inexpensive, and quick, more female dogs will be sterilized before reaching puberty, relieving the strain of overpopulation and dramatically reducing surgical morbidity and mortality. The proposed project seeks to replace surgical sterilization for female dogs with a single injection sterilant designed to induce permanent sterility and tested in rats. This project will determine whether reproductive inhibition observed in rodent species will be translatable to the dog. Specifically, the goal is to identify effective and safe dosage range and temporal window. The animals will be carefully followed for health and safety assessments and female reproductive outcomes will be measured. If successful, this project will indicate that sterilization can be achieved in female dogs without resorting to invasive physical surgery. A pilot study will also be performed in male dogs to determine an optimal dose that will inhibit developmental maturation of the testis and thus inhibit fertility at puberty. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.