BIWFC HOSTS FERTILITY CONTROL SESSION AT EVPMC 2023 

BIWFC Europe Director Giovanna Massei and BIWFC Advisory Board Chair Stephanie Boyles Griffin were among the 200 participants attending the European Vertebrate Pest Management Conference (EVPMC 2023) in Florence, Italy in September 2023. Giovanna served as a Plenary Speaker presenting “Too many? Eight reasons for Europe to invest in wildlife fertility control,” to nearly 100 conference attendees.

Giovanna also co-chaired, with Jens Jacob (BIWFC Advisory Committee member), the BIWFC sponsored session on Fertility Control. The session included the following six presentations and was followed by an engaging panel discussion.

• “Insights from 20 years’ research on free roaming cats,” Idit Gunther (Israel)
• “Fertility control in common voles – sperm analysis and residues of an anti-fertility compound,” Jens Jacob (Germany)
• “Collaboration, communications and fertility control to effectively manage a well-established invasive non-native squirrel,” Kay Haw (United Kingdom)
•  “An effective contraceptive bait delivery system for small mammals,” Sarah Beatham (United Kingdom)
• “African lessons from Europe in developing contraceptives for rodent management,” Steven Belmain (United Kingdom)
• “Controlling urban pigeon population humanely,” Marco Pellizzari (United Kingdom)