Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35377788›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022

Reduction of free-roaming cat population requires high-intensity neutering in spatial contiguity to mitigate compensatory effects.

Idit Gunther, Hadas Hawlena, Lior Azriel, Dan Gibor, Olaf Berke, Eyal Klement

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
28citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

28 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Pathogens Associated with Domestic Cats (Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
    Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Density and Home Range of Cats in a Small Inhabited Mediterranean Island.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Idit GuntherKoret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Hadas HawlenaMitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sde-Boker 8499000, Israel.ORCID 0000-0002-0634-2920
Lior AzrielKoret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Dan GiborKoret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Olaf BerkeDepartment of Population Medicine, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.ORCID 0000-0003-3537-0629
Eyal KlementKoret School of Veterinary Medicine, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food & Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot 76100, Israel.ORCID 0000-0002-2384-2345

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

When free-roaming in natural areas, the domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus) is ranked high among the most destructive alien species. Near human dwellings, it might pose a risk to humans, impair sanitation, and suffer from poor welfare. Cats' popularity as companion animals complicates their population control. Thus, culling is often replaced by a fertility control method called “trap–neuter–return/release” (TNR), considered more humane. Despite the extensive application of TNR, a long-term controlled study was never performed to test its effectiveness. We present a uniquely designed controlled field experiment for examining TNR effectiveness. The study was performed over a 12-y period, divided into preintervention and mixed- and full-intervention phases, and spanned a 20-km2 urban area. Trends of cat, intact-female, and kitten counts, cat reproduction, and carcass reports were compared among study phases and areas with different neutering intensities. The cat population increased during the first two study phases and did not decline in highly neutered populations, presumably due to cat immigration. Expansion of high-intensity neutering to the entire city in the full-intervention phase (>70% neutering percentage) reversed cat population growth, reaching an annual approximately 7% reduction. This population reduction was limited by a rebound increase in cat reproduction and longevity. We conclude that cat population management by TNR should be performed with high intensity, continuously, and in geographic contiguity to enable population reduction. To enhance management effectiveness and mitigate compensatory effects, we recommend further evaluating an integrated strategy that combines TNR with complementary methods (e.g., vital resource regulation, ill cat euthanasia, and adoption).

Indexed as

CatsSterilization, ReproductiveAnimalsFemaleMalePopulation Controlfertility controlfree-roaming catspopulation compensatory mechanismspopulation managementTNR

Identifiers

PMID35377788
PMCPMC9169806

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.