Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Do dog collars with allomones help control brown dog tick
By Barreto, Lucas P et al.·Published in Ticks and tick-borne diseases·2021·Instituto de Patologia Tropical e Saú, Brazil·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Efficacy of collars with allomones on dogs to control Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato infestations under field conditions.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 30 mixed-breed dogs naturally infested with brown dog ticks (Rhipicephalus sanguineus) were tested to see if collars releasing certain natural repellents could help reduce tick numbers. The dogs wearing the repellent collars had significantly fewer ticks overall compared to those with regular collars after 30 days. While the collars were effective at reducing adult tick populations, they did not significantly lower the number of larvae or nymphs. This suggests that these collars could be a helpful option for pet owners looking to manage tick infestations in their dogs.
People also search for: dog tick prevention collar · how to get rid of brown dog ticks · mixed-breed dog tick treatment
Abstract
Benzaldehyde and 2-hexanone are allomones produced by beagle dogs that reduce infestation by Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato on these animals and on susceptible dogs which artificially release these repellents. These observations were obtained in previous laboratory tests or artificial infestations of susceptible dogs under controlled conditions. Here we evaluated the efficacy of collars delivering these repellents for suppressing the loads of R. sanguineus s.l. on naturally infested mixed-breed dogs under field conditions. Thirty dogs naturally infested with R. sanguineus s.l. were separated into two groups with 15 dogs each. The dogs from the treatment group received the collars with slow-release formulations of the allomones, and the dogs from the control group received collars without such compounds. Collar effectiveness tests were carried out over 30 days. All ticks found were removed from each dog, identified, and counted every collection day. The density of the different life stages of R. sanguineus s.l. varied greatly between groups and across evaluation times. Adult ticks were the stage most abundant and prevalent on infested dogs. The counts for larvae, nymphs and adults were similar between the control and the treatment groups within each tick collection day. Conversely, when we considered the total number of ticks over 30 days and gathered all life stages collected in the same animal, the dogs from the control group had significantly higher loads (35.3 ± 4.27) of ticks than the dogs from the treatment group (21.8 ± 2.96) (P < 0.01). In addition, the efficacy of treatment with repellent collars was high for adult ticks (30.8%) but was extremely low for reducing larval or nymphal infestation (0 or 2.6%, respectively). The present study demonstrates, for the first time, the efficacy of these volatile compounds on naturally infested dogs under field conditions. The development of a technologically enhanced device for slow release of the allomones tested here can be an advantageous alternative for reducing R. sanguineus s.l. infestation on dogs in residential environments.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34218055/