| Technology Registration Unit
The National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) Registration Unit is responsible for providing data and information to support regulatory approval of new or existing products needed by Wildlife Services (WS) Operations. These products allow the WS Program to more efficiently address wildlife damage issues and protect agriculture, human health, and endangered species or critical habitats. To meet this responsibility, the Registration Unit works closely with APHIS headquarters staff in Riverdale, MD, and with NWRC scientists to ensure that regulatory studies meet U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory guidelines.
APHIS currently holds registrations through the EPA for 10 active ingredients formulated into 23 federally registered vertebrate pesticide products. These products meet the needs of bird management (five avicides and one avian repellent), rodent management (11 rodenticides and one fumigant), predator management for livestock protection (two predacides and one fumigant), and a toxicant for managing brown treesnakes on Guam. These registrations include three anticoagulant rodenticide products recently registered for eradication of rodents in critical island habitats.
APHIS also holds three Investigational New Animal Drug (INAD) authorizations from FDA to continue the development of one wildlife contraceptive (GnRH), and to permit Wildlife Services use of two immobilizing agents [alpha-chloralose and propiopromazine hydrochloride (PPZH)]. During 2006, EPA and FDA agreed that contraceptives for use in wildlife and feral animal populations would be regulated by the EPA. As a result, APHIS is now conducting all research on DiazaCon under the authority of the EPA. In addition, APHIS is the process of transferring all research and registration activities on GnRH (GonaCon) to the EPA.
Vertebrate control products authorized for use by EPA (gas cartridge, DRC-1339, compound 1080, methiocarb, sodium cyanide, zinc phosphide, strychnine, brodifacoum, diphacinone, M-44, egg oil, GnRH).
Vertebrate control products authorized for investigational purposes by FDA ( PPZH, alpha-chloralose).
With the exception of the gas cartridge and strychnine, all USDA/APHIS vertebrate pest control products are restricted-use compounds and intended for use by Wildlife Services employees or people under their direct supervision.
Downloadable Factsheet on Registration 291K
A review of existing and potential New World and Australasian vertebrate pesticides with a rationale for linking use patterns to registration patterns (2010).
NWRC Chemical Effects Database
The National Wildlife Research Center “Chemical Effects Database” contains approximately 11,000 published bioassay records and data for over 2,000 chemicals analyzed and evaluated for toxicity to animals and plants, repellency, immobilization, and reproductive inhibition.
Registration Publications
Registration Program Support Activities 2010
Single-Shot Contraceptive for White-Tailed Deer
In September 2009, NWRC obtained approval from the EPA for the registration of GonaCon™ as a single-shot contraceptive to control reproduction in female white-tailed deer. Since the early 1900s, wildlife conservation efforts in the United States have focused on restoring, protecting, and promoting the growth of populations of many wildlife species. Such efforts with white-tailed deer have been so successful that local populations have erupted throughout much of its range. Deer populations have increased from only about 500,000 deer across the United States in the early 1900s to over 15 million today.
Although this recovery is considered a wildlife management success story, deer are causing many problems, particularly in urban environments. Overabundant deer populations degrade natural habitats, decimate ornamental trees and shrubs in residential and commercial areas, and pose a serious threat to motorists due to numerous deer/vehicle collisions. It is estimated that there are over 700,000 deer-vehicle collisions each year that result in more than 200 human fatalities and 29,000 injuries. In addition to vehicle accidents, deer have been implicated in the distribution and transmission of Lyme disease. Annual estimates of deer damage are reported to exceed $2 billion nationwide, including $1 billion in car damages, over $100 million in agricultural crop damage, $750 million in damage to the timber industry, and over $250 million in damage to metropolitan households (landscape plantings, etc.).
Regulated hunting remains the most effective and efficient means of managing deer populations in most situations. However, deer are now overabundant in many areas where hunting and the discharge of firearms are legally prohibited. In addition, many urban and suburban residents prefer nonlethal wildlife control methods. Wildlife contraception—when used as part of an integrated approach with other methods—can potentially help manage locally overabundant deer populations.
Over the past 14 years, scientists from the NWRC developed a new wildlife immunocontraceptive (GonaCon™) vaccine to help reduce overabundant urban white-tailed deer and other overabundant wildlife populations. This multi-year, single-shot vaccine stimulates the production of antibodies that bind to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which is necessary for the production of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. By binding to GnRH, the antibodies reduce GnRH’s ability to stimulate the release of these sex hormones. As long as a sufficient level of antibody activity is present in the bloodstream, sexual activity is decreased, and vaccinated animals remain infertile.
In recent NWRC field studies in New Jersey and Maryland using free-ranging deer in semi-enclosed urban settings, a single shot of GonaCon prevented pregnancy in 67 to 88% of the deer in the first year and in 47 to 48% the second year. In pen studies, a single shot of GonaCon successfully induced infertility in four out of five female deer for five years. A second shot given the same year or in subsequent years increased effectiveness, potentially rendering deer infertile for life. There is no known danger associated with humans or wildlife eating deer that have been vaccinated with GonaCon.
Expanded Use of DRC-1339 for Laughing Gulls
DRC-1339 is a selective toxicant registered for the control of local populations of blackbirds, starlings, pigeons, and several species of gulls. When originally approved, the USDA APHIS DRC-1339 product label (Compound DRC-1339 Concentrate–Gulls) prohibited the product’s use to control laughing gulls in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine due to historically low numbers of the species at that time. However, laughing gulls have since become locally abundant throughout New England, posing a serious risk to endangered or threatened birds (such as terns and piping plovers) by preying on adults, chicks, and eggs; interfering with the establishment of nests; and disturbing adults that are foraging for food. At the request of APHIS Wildlife Services and with the support of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the NWRC Registration Unit prepared a label amendment for submission to the EPA seeking to remove the restriction that limits use of DRC-1339 with laughing gulls. In May 2010, the EPA approved this label amendment, allowing for expanded use of DRC-1339 to protect threatened and endangered species from laughing gull predation.
Consolidation of Section 24c Compound DRC-1339 Labels
DRC-1339 is an avicide used to control blackbirds, starlings, pigeons, crows, ravens, magpies, and gulls. The NWRC Registration Unit drafted an amendment to the product label for “Compound DRC-1339 Concentrate Feedlots” to consolidate eight special local need (SLN) registrations regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) authority. This consolidation will significantly reduce the number of SLN registrations and provide increased flexibility to end-users of the product.
White-Footed Mice Can Remain on the Zinc Phosphide Label
White-footed mice (Peromyscus spp.) are classified as a species of concern by FWS because these rodents can transmit hantavirus. Zinc phosphide is one of only two active ingredients currently registered for controlling populations of white-footed mice and is the only registered product for this use that does not lead to potential resistance in mice. EPA previously determined that there were insufficient efficacy data to support the continued registration of this product for white-footed mice. However, after discussion with the NWRC Registration Unit, the EPA recognized the serious public health consequences of eliminating one of the few management tools available in the event of a hantavirus outbreak and subsequently reversed their decision to remove Peromyscus uses on the USDA-APHIS Zinc Phosphide Concentrate for Rodent Control label.
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