3.3.2. What are the costs involved in sterilization programmes?

The cost of surgical sterilization varies significantly with country, mainly due to differences in staff and drugs costs, and also depending on the number of animals being sterilised (e.g. significant savings can be made in high-throughput systems). In a range of medium to high-throughput systems based in developing world locations, the costs per surgical sterilisation was found to range from $3 - 15 US [1] for the medicines and consumables, at an average of $7.50 US. The full costs (including veterinarians and veterinary support staff, clinic running costs, all medicines and consumables) ranged from $10 – 52 US, with an average of $30 US per sterilisation. Variation in clinic running costs was affected by clinic type: mobile clinics have benefits because they can reach a wider population of animals but they are more expensive to run than static clinics.