Spotlight on research: How residual speed of kill affects flea control in dogs and cats (Sponsored by Merck Animal Health)
Residual speed of kill: Understanding its importance in eliminating fleas from a household
To appreciate the differences in residual adulticide flea control treatments for dogs and cats, it's helpful to understand the experimental methods used in flea treatment studies. Two important, distinct evaluations of flea adulticides are initial speed of kill studies and residual speed of kill studies. 1-5 Initial speed of kill studies measure how quickly a flea adulticide kills fleas when it is first administered; these studies do not indicate the speed of flea kill of the product at other times during the treatment period. In contrast, residual speed of kill studies are more clinically relevant and provide flea kill information for the entire post-treatment interval.In addition, a third type of study, which can be combined with a residual speed of kill study, is a reproductive breakpoint study. 6-9 This type of study measures whether a residual flea control treatment can prevent a flea population from maintaining itself.
In this Spotlight on Research, I will explain the different studies and discuss which results are most important in evaluating the efficacy of flea-control products.