Immunocontraception is induced in BALB/c mice inoculated with murine cytomegalovirus expressing mouse zona pellucida 3.

Immunocontraception, the prevention of oocyte fertilization through immunological means, could potentially be used to control plaguing mouse populations in Australia. This paper describes the construction of a mouse-specific betaherpesvirus, murine cytomegalovirus, which has been engineered to express the murine zona pellucida 3 (ZP3) gene. A single inoculation of this recombinant virus resulted in almost complete infertility, persistent anti-ZP3 antibody production, and profound changes to ovarian morphology in BALB/c mice in the absence of significant virus replication during the acute phase of infection. Murine cytomegalovirus may prove to be useful as a vector for the delivery of a mouse-specific immunocontraceptive agent to target populations of wild mice in the field.