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TNAVC, January 2000 Suppl Compend Contin Educ Pract Vet Vol. 22, No. 4(A), 2000
time-compressed evolution. Classic evolution is a gradual selection of be combined to establish LC50 and LC95 to be used in a discriminat-
more competitive morphologic, physiologic, or behavioral traits, ing dose bioassay. A discriminating dose bioassay will then be used
whereas resistance selection is a rapid evolutionary process. The appli- for large-scale screening of field populations of cat fleas. A discrim-
cation of the insecticide results in an instantaneous widespread eco- inating dose bioassay will allow for more rapid screening of larger
logic disaster on the population. Individuals with morphologic, physi- numbers of cat flea strains. It is planned that during the first year the
ologic, or behavioral traits that allow survival remain to reproduce. five laboratories will randomly screen up to 150 flea isolates (indi-
Although a great deal of knowledge has been gained concerning vidual collections of fleas from infested dogs or cats in veterinary
insecticide resistance in other insect species, unfortunately in fleas practices) in the United States and 100 in Europe.
the extent, prevalence, or clinical significance of insecticide resist- During this screening process a population will be considered
ance to any particular insecticide has not been determined. Although potentially resistant if the mortality at the discriminating dosage falls
it is apparent that insecticide resistance has been detected in various outside the confidence limits of the normal range for the five baseline
cat flea populations, there currently is no active program to monitor for strains. The numbers of any such field strain determined to be poten-
resistance. In addition, no standard bioassay system has been used to tially resistant will be increased in the laboratory, and their dose-
compare strains, and there are no data to indicate what level of sur- response will be determined in a classic bioassay. A population will be
vivability in a bioassay corresponds to control failure on animals. considered resistant if its LD50 (median lethal dose) and/or LD95 is sig-
nificantly greater (outside the 95% confidence interval) than the
The Flea Susceptibility Monitoring Team LD50 and/or LD95 of the standard value for the combined strains.
In September 1999 a Flea Susceptibility Monitoring Team was Most programs for monitoring insecticide resistance in other
organized by Bayer, Animal Health. The team includes Byron Blagburn species of insects do not attempt to correlate the dose-response data
(Auburn University, USA), Michael Dryden (Kansas State University, to field performance (i.e., efficacy) of the insecticide tested. This is
USA), Dennis Jacobs (Royal Veterinary College, London, UK), an important question when monitoring for the development of
Michael Rust (University of California at Riverside, USA), Ian Den- insecticide resistance, mainly for two reasons: first, there is no infor-
holm and Martin Williamson (Institute of Arable Crops Research mation on how well the dose-response data equate to the on-host
[IACR], Rothamsted, UK), Heinz Mehlhorn (Heinrich Heine Univer- efficacy of the chemical in question; second, the validity of using
sity, Düsseldorf, Germany), and the Research and Development Divi- dose-response of strains reared under laboratory conditions for a
sion of Bayer Animal Health (United States, Germany, Australia). long time is questionable. Therefore, once a strain has been deter-
The team was formed to establish protocols and procedures to mined to be resistant in the classic bioassay, the team will conduct
monitor cat flea susceptibility to imidacloprid, determine clinical on-host efficacy evaluations and simulated home environment trials
significance of reduced susceptibility that may be found in the of the resistant isolate(s) using standard doses of imidacloprid to
future, and formulate plans to steward imidacloprid into the future. determine if resistance levels found in laboratory bioassays have any
clinical significance.
Monitoring for Insecticide Resistance Finally, because virtually nothing is known concerning the
Monitoring for insecticide resistance in wild populations of pests resistance mechanisms of resistance in fleas, the team will attempt
has often been used to describe a continuous inspection of levels of to determine biochemical and genetic mechanism(s) of resistance.
efficacy of an insecticide applied to such populations. The first step
of a monitoring program should be to obtain baseline data before References
1. Ferrari JA: Insecticide resistance, in Beaty BJ, Marguardt WC: The Biolo-
resistance appears and the use of the insecticide is widespread. How-
gy of Disease Vectors. Niwot, Colo, University Press of Colorado, 1996, pp
ever, if baseline data cannot be obtained a priori, then data from sev- 512–529.
eral laboratory strains should be used to establish such a baseline. 2. Brown AWA, Pal R: Insecticide Resistance in Arthropods, ed 2. Geneva,
WHO, 1971, p 491.
Obviously, these should be insecticide-susceptible strains that have 3. Georghiou GP, Mellon RP: Pesticide resistance in time and space, in
not been exposed to insecticides during their laboratory rearing. One Georghiou GP, Saito T (eds): Pest Resistance to Pesticides. New York,
Plenum Press, 1983, pp 1–46.
would hope that the dose-responses of these lab strains would cover 4. Collart MG, Fink WF: Development of resistance to malathion in cat flea
the range of original variability found among wild populations. (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae). J Econ Entomol 79:1570–1572, 1986.
5. Moyses EW: Measurement of insecticide resistance in the adult cat flea,
The first step proposed in establishing baseline data is to estab-
in Meola RW (ed): Proc Third Intl Symp Ectoparasites of Pets, 995. Col-
lish a practical, repeatable, and reliable bioassay system to monitor lege Station, Tex, Texas A&M University, 1999, pp 21–34.
for imidacloprid susceptibility in five separate laboratories. The 6. El-Gazzar LM, Milio J, Koehler PG, Patterson PS: Insecticide resistance in
the cat flea (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae). J Econ Entomol 79:132–134, 1986.
monitoring team will do this by determining the LC50 (median 7. El-Gazzar LM, Patterson RS, Koehler PG: Comparisons of cat flea
lethal concentration) and LC95 of five laboratory strains of cat fleas (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae) adult and larval insecticide susceptibility. Fla
Entomol 71:359–363, 1988.
using a larval development inhibition test. In addition, the team 8. Rust MK: Insecticide resistance in fleas, in Knapp FW (ed): Intl Symp
will establish the range of LC50 and LC95 of the same five strains Ectoparasites of Pets. Lexington, KY, University of Kentucky, 1993, pp 18–26.
using an adult in vitro bioassay. Data from all laboratories will then
Suppl Compend Contin Educ Pract Vet Vol. 22, No. 4(A), 2000 International Flea Control Symposium