DISIAQ: Birds and Bees Do It but Some Frogs Don’t Go A-Courtin’!

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dr John Hart has developed a “Love Bomb” to help endangered animals breed. The aphrodisiac supplement DisiAq® is currently being trialed on rare frogs at Paignton Zoo in the UK with remarkable success, taking the zoo into the record books.

Paignton Zoo is the first zoo to test the DisiAq® reproductive activator on amphibians, after successful trials by Dr Hart’s team elsewhere on worms, snails and fish.The supplement was dissolved in water and misted onto the frogs in their rainforest vivaria. Sceptical keepers were surprised to hear mating calls soon afterwards.

DisiAq was tested on the splendid mantella (Mantella pulchra) and the brown mantella (Mantellae benaui) from Madagascar, both of which went on to breed. The success with the brown mantella is believed to be the first in a zoo anywhere in the world.

Misting DisiAq onto the frogs at Paignton Zoo takes advantage of the permeability of amphibian skin. The product can also be added to drinking water or the water in which fish and other aquatic species live, and to food.

Dr. John Hart leads the UK scientists responsible for DisiAq:

“We hit on the product serendipitously and are especially grateful to Paignton Zoo for helping us perfect the use of what is a highly complex formulation. Our success rate is going up all the time, with DisiAq causing creatures that breed easily (e.g. guppies, angelfish, water snails) to breed more and assisting in cases where breeding in captivity is far harder (e.g. tiger stingrays and Paignton’s Malagasy frogs). DisiAq has yet to be tested in mammals.”

“For fun among ourselves we have nicknamed DisiAq the Love Bomb, but it’s mild, slow-acting and benign, so not really bomb-like at all. We are looking into the mechanism of action, suspecting an exotic superfood effect. We are delighted with the results we have achieved at Paignton Zoo, which is the first time the supplement has been used on organisms with legs! The Love Bomb could be another weapon in our fight against extinction”