Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Oral fluralaner kills sand flies biting dogs in lab trials
By Bongiorno, Gioia et al.·Published in Parasites & vectors·2022·Unit of Vector-Borne Diseases, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Insecticidal efficacy against Phlebotomus perniciosus in dogs treated orally with fluralaner in two different parallel-group, negative-control, random and masked trials.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of beagles was tested for protection against sand flies that can spread a serious disease called leishmaniasis. The dogs were given an oral treatment called fluralaner, which proved to be very effective at killing the sand flies that bit them. In the trials, fluralaner showed nearly 100% effectiveness for several weeks after treatment, significantly reducing the survival of the flies. This means that giving fluralaner to dogs can help protect them from these disease-carrying insects for at least two months.
People also search for: dog sand fly prevention · fluralaner for dogs · leishmaniasis in dogs treatment
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Dogs are the reservoir host of Leishmania infantum, the agent of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (VL), which is transmitted by the bite of phlebotomine sand flies. The sand fly Phlebotomus perniciosus is the main vector of zoonotic VL in the western Mediterranean region. Fluralaner has been shown to effectively kill this vector. The aim of this study was to evaluate the insecticidal efficacy of oral fluralaner in dogs bitten by P. perniciosus. METHODS: Two parallel-group, negative-controlled, randomized, masked laboratory trials with equivalent designs were performed in two different locations using two different pathogen-free laboratory-bred P. perniciosus strains for the challenge. In each trial, 12 purpose-bred beagles, initially ranked on natural attractiveness to sand flies, were randomly allocated to two groups (6 animals/group). Dogs in one group received fluralaner orally at the approved dose on day 0, and dogs in the control group were not treated. Each dog was subsequently exposed to an average of 70 unfed live sand fly females on days 1, 28, 56 and 84. Viability of blood-fed females was then evaluated for up to 96 h after exposure, and insecticidal efficacy was measured as the survival rate of flies fed on the fluralaner-treated dogs versus that of dogs in the control group. Significance was calculated for the proportion of live fed sand fly counts from treated versus control group dogs. RESULTS: Comparison of the survival proportions between treated and control groups showed that fluralaner insecticidal efficacy was highly significant in both trials (P < 0.001 or P < 0.01 in different assessments) through to day 56. In the first trial, efficacy reached 100% on days 1 and 28, and 99.1% on day 56; in the second trial, the insecticidal efficacy was 98.5, 100 and 85.9%, respectively on the same days. On day 84, efficacy was in the range of 53-57% (P < 0.05) in the first trial and 0% in the second trial. CONCLUSION: A single oral fluralaner administration to dogs under laboratory conditions results in strong and reproducible insecticidal efficacy against P. perniciosus for at least 8 weeks.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34998427/