Monday, April 27, 2009

The Efficacy of OvoControl P

One of the most common OvoControl® questions is, "how well does it work?" The answer to this question actually has two parts, 1) how well does OvoControl interfere with egg hatchability? and, 2) how quickly will OvoControl reduce the population of birds?

Egg Hatchability
The active ingredient in OvoControl, nicarbazin, interferes with egg development and acts as a contraceptive in birds. The egg hatchability effects of nicarbazin are well documented and characterized in the scientific literature and the data is indisputable - if a bird eats the bait daily and in an adequate quantity, the eggs will simply not hatch. As occurs frequently in nature, birds will abandon a failed nest and try again.

Population Effects
The rate at which a pigeon population declines depends on a range of variables, primarily related to site-specific characteristics. Controlling variables in a free ranging population of birds is obviously challenging. Nevertheless, the data reported in the US (Linda Vista) is consistent with what has been reported in Italy. The absence of successful reproduction, in combination with natural attrition, reduces the population of birds at a rate of approximately 50%, annually.

OvoControl reduces the population of birds - gradually and predictably - all without the risks of a toxicant or need to remove dead or dying birds.

For more details, see the new 2-page white paper for OvoControl Efficacy on the company website at

OvoControl® is a registered trademark of Innolytics, LLC, Rancho Santa Fe, CA.


Petra Voegtle said...

I am not an expert on veterinary issues but I wonder why Nicarbazin is not approved for use in Germany. I also wonder why most manufacturers of Nicarbazin are located in China...
Use of chemical substances to control populations of a certain species have always proven to be of show short lived success. The aftermath is often worse than the original situation.
To implement habitats for natural predators such as the peregrine falcon have shown much more success in the long range!

thunder1109 said...

These are good questions. OvoControl has only been approved in the US since that is where the technology was originally developed. If the product cannot thrive in this market it will not succeed anywhere else either. On that note, the first steps to register the product in the UK are already underway.

While nicarbazin is manufactured in China, ours comes from the original Merck source. The Chinese dominate many different areas, so it should not come as any surprise.

We have to disagree on the use of chemistry to control populations and its long term failure -- just look to the human population for the ultimate in family planning success story.

Finally, falcons and other raptors are always a good option. The downside is that falcons have immense hunting territories and do not dine exclusively on pigeons. In other words, there are far too many of these birds for a pair of falcons to handle. Even worse, urban falcons have bad brakes and tend to get injured flying at high speed into buildings.

OvoControl is a very safe and effective population management tool. Interestingly, one of the German companies, Boehringer Ingelheim, marketed pigeon contraception very successfully in many of the major cities there -- unfortunately, they had problems with their compound and withdrew the product from the market. OvoControl would be a great replacement.