Tubectomy of Pregnant and Non-pregnant Female Balinese Macaques (Macaca Fascicularis) With Post-operative Monitoring

Abstract

Worldwide, primates, and humans increasingly share habitats and often enter in conflict when primates thrive in human-dominated environments, calling for special management measures. Reproductive control is increasingly used to manage population growth but very few monitoring data are available. Therefore, the efficiency and implications of such programs require a careful examination. In the context of a contraception program in wild female long-tailed macaques in Ubud, Bali, conducted over four successive campaigns between 2017 and 2019, including 140 females (i.e., 41.9% of the reproductive females of the population in 2019), modifications of an endoscopic tubectomy procedure, a permanent sterilization method, clinical evaluation of this method, and the post-operative monitoring results of the neutered females after release are described. This surgical approach was applicable for pregnant females: 28.6% of the treated females were pregnant at the time of the surgery. The procedure used a single lateral port to reach and cauterize both oviducts in non-pregnant as well as in early to mid-term pregnant females. Pregnant females nearer to term required a second lateral port to access both oviducts masked by the size of the gravid uterus. Moreover, bipolar thermocauterization was utilized successfully without resection to realize the tubectomy. The average duration of the laparoscopic surgery was 14 min for non-pregnant females and 22 min for pregnant females. Animals were released 3 h 22 min in average following their capture. This short holding time, recommended for free-ranging primates, was made possible by the minimal invasiveness of the sterilization approach. A laparoscopic post-operative evaluation conducted on two patients during the following campaign confirmed that the oviducts were definitely disrupted and no longer patent. Moreover, no new pregnancies in sterilized females were recorded during the 3-year observation period. The survival rate of the treated females 6 months after sterilization was high (96.3%) with no major post-operative complications clinically recorded. Among females that were pregnant during surgery, 81.1% were confirmed to experience term delivery. This study demonstrates the safety and efficiency of endoscopic tubectomy, even for pregnant females, as a mean of wild macaques' population control.

Long-Tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) Contraception Methods: A Systematic Review

“…Furthermore, four (4) studies report contraception in male Cynomolgus macaques, while 15 studies report contraception in female Cynomolgus macaques. Except for the studies by [ 25 , 26 ], all the included studies report contraception in captive long-tailed macaques.…”

“…Deleuze et al [ 26 ] performed a tubectomy on 140 reproductive long-tailed macaques (129 adults and 11 subadults) in the Ubud Monkey Forest in Indonesia. The procedure reports success in 97.1% of the tubectomized animals.…”

Use of Laryngeal Mask and Anesthetic Management in Hamadryas Baboons (Papio hamadryas) Undergoing Laparoscopic Salpingectomy—A Case Series

“…Although laparoscopy is reported in different species of NHPs [ 2 , 24 ], few data exist regarding the effect that pneumoperitoneum has on the physiological variables of the anesthetized animals. In baboons, the effect of laparoscopy is reported in experimental studies [ 16 ], showing a rise in RR and a decrease in HR, with an IAP of between 7 and 26 mmHg, while respiratory distress occurred after 30 min of IAP of 22 mm Hg.…”

Healing Hanuman’s Army: Veterinary Care as a Core Component of One Health Principles in a Southeast Asian Monkey Forest

“…As the macaque population has grown, the Temple Group has further dispersed into these human-dominated spaces. Recognizing the detrimental role of population growth in group expansion, the Ubud Monkey Forest in partnership with the University of Liège (Belgium) and the University of Udayana (Bali) have initiated a sterilization program [ 35 , 36 ].…”