Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Preventing Babesia canis in dogs with Effitix tick treatment
By Navarro, Christelle et al.·Published in Parasites & vectors·2015·Virbac, France·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Prevention of Babesia canis in dogs: efficacy of a fixed combination of permethrin and fipronil (Effitix®) using an experimental transmission blocking model with infected Dermacentor reticulatus ticks.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs was tested to see if a topical treatment called Effitix, which combines fipronil and permethrin, could prevent a serious disease called babesiosis caused by the Babesia canis parasite, transmitted by ticks. In two experiments, most of the dogs treated with Effitix remained free of the infection, while all untreated dogs became infected after being exposed to ticks carrying the parasite. The results showed that applying Effitix just two days before tick exposure was effective in preventing the disease. This means that using Effitix can help protect your dog from getting sick from tick bites.
People also search for: dog babesiosis prevention · Effitix for dogs · tick prevention for dogs · Babesia canis symptoms in dogs · how to protect my dog from ticks
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Two experimental studies using a transmission blocking model with Dermacentor reticulatus ticks infected with Babesia canis were performed to test the ability of Effitix® to prevent the transmission of babesiosis in dogs. METHODS: Four groups of seven dogs (experiment 1) and one group of eight dogs (experiment 2) were treated topically with a novel combination of fipronil and permethrin in a spot-on formulation (Effitix®, Virbac) respectively 28, 21, 14 and 7 days (experiment 1) and 2 days (experiment 2) prior to tick infestation. In each study, a control group of seven dogs (experiment 1) and eight dogs (experiment 2) remained untreated. On day 0, all dogs were infested with adult D.reticulatus ticks harboring B. canis. An efficacy failure (successfully infected) was regarded as a dog in the treated groups that was tested serologically positive for B.canis antibodies, using an indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) assay and tested positive for B.canis by DNA-assay using PCR analysis. RESULTS: B.canis was transmitted by D.reticulatus to all untreated dogs (experiment 1) and six untreated dogs out of eight (experiment 2) as confirmed by IFA and PCR assays. The large majority of treated dogs (92.9% in experiment 1 and 100% in experiment 2) remained sero-negative over the challenge period. CONCLUSIONS: The treatment of dogs with Effitix® applied 2 to 28 days prior to infestation with D. reticulatus harboring B.canis, successfully prevented the transmission of canine babesiosis.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25595325/