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Two veterinary drugs may help eliminate bedbugs

By Cara Murez, HealthDay News

Two common drugs that veterinarians use to kill parasites on pets could be the solution to getting rid of bedbugs.

Both fluralaner and ivermectin, which are used to kill fleas and ticks on household pets, could also kill bedbugs. The newer, longer-lasting fluralaner showed especially strong potential.

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This new research comes from a North Carolina State University (NCSU) study that examined the drugs and their effectiveness in controlling bedbug populations on poultry farms.

Entomologists and veterinary scientists from NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine tested bedbug death rates in different experiments.

One included mixing blood with each of the drugs on a lab bench and letting the bugs eat it. In the other, bedbugs fed off chickens who had received the treatments topically or through ingestion.

"The drugs affect receptors in the insect's nervous system," said corresponding author Coby Schal, a professor of entomology.

Both drugs killed most bedbugs on the lab bench. Fluralaner worked even better on bedbugs that showed resistance to common insecticides, the investigators found.

"The bedbug is a globally important insect," Schal said in a university news release. "The last few decades have seen a resurgence of bedbugs in homes, and now we're seeing bedbugs return to poultry farms. Since there is no proven method to stop bedbugs in commercial farms, the potential problems on poultry farms could be massive. We're trying to get ahead of it by developing technologies that can eliminate bedbugs."

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Fluralaner was also highly effective at killing bedbugs that fed on chickens.

Ivermectin did not work in that experiment, possibly because the chickens quickly clear that drug from their systems, the study authors noted.

"We used the recommended dosage of ivermectin, either in a topical form or ingested, but neither was able to kill bedbugs," said first author Maria González-Morales, a former doctoral student at NCSU.

Though fluralaner is new and mostly used for companion animals, Europe and Australia have approved it for use in the poultry industry. Ivermectin is used on household pets, larger animals and for anti-parasitic purposes in humans, particularly in Africa.

Adding fluralaner to poultry drinking water could be effective against bedbugs on poultry farms, the researchers said, along with monitoring, education and heat treatments.

"The health effects to poultry from bedbug infestation are not well documented, but anecdotally poultry farmers see animal welfare concerns like stress and anemia, which could negatively affect meat or egg production," González-Morales said.

Schal added that there are other issues as well.

"There are also concerns for workers on these farms considering how easily bedbugs can spread from poultry to people," he added.

The findings were recently published online in Parasites & Vectors.

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More information

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has more on getting rid of bedbugs.

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